The Choices We Face
by Chaos Kid 666
Summary: First story ever. All comments positive or negative would be very appreciated. After the Miku incident, everything's been settling down in the life of Itsuka Shido. While in Tohka's life, everything's been thrown into a jumble. Why had Kurumi saved everyone after trying to kill them? She had to know, and she may just know a way to go about doing that. Rated T for now
1. Chapter 1

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh~"

A loud yawn filled the air in the small room of the Itsuka residence on this early Sunday morning. A tired boy with blue hair peered past the crack between his eyelids to see the warm sun filling his room on the early Sunday morning.

"M-Morning already…" He said lazily as he stirred underneath his covers and creating a cocoon to keep warm in.

Several weeks had passed since Dark Tohka came and passed through Shido's life, and while the repairs to the city were still underway, his life had gone more or less back into the flow of things. He had always regretted leaving things the way they were with Kurumi, and hated himself even more for what had become of Tohka, but it was all in the past now and he knew he would always do his best to make it up to them, not to mention all of the other spirits that gave their lives to allow him to get there in the first place.

But today was not the day for that. He had just spent the past few days studying his brains out because he desperately needed to catch up with all the work that he had missed during the events. Since much of the city was destroyed in the accident many schools refused to have kids attend on the fact that many of their homes could have been destroyed. But as the system goes, that didn't even come close to stopping them from giving as much homework as possible to make up for it.

"Daaaaaaaaarling~!"

An alluring voice rang through the morning air from outside of his window, causing the mentally exhausted boy's eyes to shoot open followed by a long sigh. He knew the voice too well to know that nothing good could possibly come out of him answering her this early in the morning. He slowly shut his eyes back yearning for sleep to overtake his body once more. He struggled to find a comfortable position to sleep in as something seemed to be restricting his movements. A cold sensation flew down Shido's spine.

He knew it was in situations like these that something bad was bound to happen. He took a deep breath as he opened one eye and slow began raising the covers with his right hand to look underneath. Shido's breath hitched in his throat as he stared at the picture before him. "K-Kotori!?"

Before him laid his adorable younger sister with her arms wrapped around him. Her hair was let down since she never liked sleeping with the ribbons in her hair and her light pink pajamas were a little baggy on her tiny body, revealing a little bit of skin around her chest. But what caught Shido's attention were her eyes. They were dark and dry as if she had been crying for some time.

"O-Oi, Kotori!"

He gently began shaking the girl in hopes of rousing her from her slumber without pissing her off and receiving an early morning jab to his gut.

"Hmm~?"

The girl began to tighten her grip around her brother as if she didn't want to wake up yet either. But like Shido, she slowly gave up and began opening her eyes.

"Huh..? Where am I…?"

She pushed herself up into a sitting position as she rubbed the weariness out of her eyes. Shido looked slightly relieved but still curious to find out the reason himself.

"Huh?"

Finally Kotori had fully awakened, but not in the happiest of moods.

"What the hell, Shido!?" She shouted as she began wrapping his covers around herself in hopes of at least staying warm. She looked over at the clock.

"What are you doing waking me up at 7:30 on a Sunday morning!" She more or less hissed the last part, however Shido didn't flinch. In fact he let out a sigh of relief to see his sister with so much energy.

"Sorry Kotori, I was just a little startled when I saw you sleeping under the covers next to me." His face grew a tad more serious. "It looked as though you had been crying so I grew a little worried for you..." His voice was calm, but the passion and concern behind each of his words were almost visibly noticeable. Not expecting this so early in the morning, the red head began to blush before grabbing a pillow next to Shido.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" She quickly began bashing his body with the pillow. Even with his arms trying to protect himself, what was supposed to be bag of feathers felt like a cement block with the influence of his sister.

"O-Ow, hey! Watch-" Bull's eye. A direct slam into the face caused his sentence to be completely cut off as his head flew back into the pillow behind him.

"What the heck, Kotori, I'm just worried for you! I thought something was wrong! You never sleep with me anymore, and the fact that your eyes were dry and dark…" His voice slowly grew quieter as his sentence dragged on and his head began looking down at the covers. Kotori quickly picked up on this and couldn't help but feel slightly upset with herself. After all, her only family member was worried about her odd behavior and she didn't exactly think before she acted.

"H-Humph! I-It's nothing to be concerned about!" She began puffing out her cheeks and crossing her arms in embarrassment from her own actions.

Shido couldn't help but feel she was holding out on him.

"If that's the case, then what was the reason you were in my bed?" A small grin appeared on his face as his sister's turned to one of unexpected shock. She rigidly turned her head towards his direction with her arms still crossed. Her head slowly started to look down at the covers beneath her.

"Ihadanightmare…." She mumbled under her breath.

"Huh? Kotori, I'm not deaf, but you'll need to speak up…" He nervously laughed as he stroked the back of his head. Frustrated, Kotori lashed out at him.

"I HAD A NIGHTMARE, OKAY!?"

Nightmare. The word held multiple meanings to Shido, but he knew what his sister meant.

"What did you dream about?" He asked as he sat a little closer to his little sister. She looked very hesitant to say what she was thinking. Her body even began to tremble slightly. "Kotori…" He lightly placed his hand on her shoulder. It seemed to calm her down a little. She took in a deep breath.

"I keep having nightmares about you dying…" Shido couldn't believe his ears, but now wasn't the time to interrupt her. He needed to hear more. "I can't help but think about what would have happened if anything went differently during the whole Miku capturing process… I almost killed you… Miku and the other spirits almost killed you… The entire city tried to capture you to have you killed… The AST basically did kill you but you got lucky… Even Tohka almost killed you through that whole ordeal… God forbid if Nightmare was against us what would have happened…"

Shido let those words sink in. He never realized how many close calls he really had during this whole ordeal. He wanted to tell her how everything turned out okay, but he couldn't help but sympathize with her. He could only imagine what would have happened to his precious sister if he were to have fallen. During the time he thought what he was doing was right, and in the end it did turn out in the best case scenario more or less. But just what if anything had gone differently. He wouldn't even be able to speak to his sister the way he is right now.

"Kotori… I'm sorry…" He leaned in and brought the redhead down to his chest. He could feel her hiccupping against his chest, most likely at the thought of such memories coming back up. "Shhh shhh it's okay. I promise I won't be leaving you anytime soon. After all, I have to take care of my precious little sister, I can't be beaten just yet, right?" Shido pulled his little sister away from his body just far enough so that he could look at her and give her that wonderful 'everything will be okay' smile that she loved so much.

A small smile graced the sides of her lips before she leaned against her brother and burrowed her way into his chest. Shido couldn't help but smile himself at seeing Kotori looking slightly relaxed. She had been working without much rest for months on account of all the new spirits flooding in, not to mention taking care of them and watching their progress. No girl her age should have to go through all of this Shido often thought, but if it weren't for her the situation would have never been even close to as peaceful as it was now. Shido leaned down and rested his cheek on his sister's head, enjoying the moment.

"DARLING!?"

The door to Shido's room suddenly flew open, the hinges partially cracked. A tall busty woman stood at the door with her arms crossed and her foot extended to where the door had been. She had long light indigo locks of hair that cascaded down her backside only to be complimented by the light purple summer dress she had been wearing. As she lowered her leg she saw Shido tightly embracing his little sister.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING THIS EARLY IN THE MORNING!?"

Feeling the embarrassment of another person watching her in this tender moment caused Kotori to be thrown into a panic.

"L-Let go of me, you beast!" She wormed her way out of Shido's arms before promptly delivering a deadly right hook into the center of Shido's gut.

"Gouf!" Shido arched over grabbing his stomach in pain. "W-What did I do…?" He was left to ponder the question as his sister jumped out of the bed and walked out of the room with her head held high and a 'humph' following her exit. As she walked past Miku, she tried as hard as she possibly could to not make eye contact out of sheer embarrassment. The songstress picked up on this and leaned in to her ear before she walked past.

"Was he gentle?" As if a volcano had just gone off inside of Kotori, her whole face turned a ruby shade and prevented her from moving.

"IT WASN'T LIKE THAT, GEEZ!" She stomped down the hallway.

Miku let out a little sigh. "Well I guess it is a little early for a child to have such fun~" A mischievous smile graced her lips before she turned back to face Shido who was still practically KO'd from earlier. "And what are you doing this early, Darling?" Her voice completely feigning innocence. Shido didn't seem to enjoy it as much.

"Kotori just had something on her mind and I wanted to talk with her to make sure she was okay… what are you doing here so early, anyways?" Trying to ignore the bruise to his stomach, Shido sat on the side of the bed as if her were about to get up.

"You can't tell me you forgot that you were supposed to go on a date with me today did you?" A nerve almost seemed to pop out of Miku's head as she gritted her teeth at Shido's usual forgetfulness. Realizing this, he almost immediately backed up.

"O-Of course I didn't forget about that…. I, uh, just forgot to set my alarm for the right time!" He jumped out of bed and ran over to his closet grabbing the nicest set of clothes that first came into his view. Miku didn't seem to be impressed but decided to let it go as it probably wasn't worth it in the end.

"Well, at least hurry, please? I've been standing at your window for about half an hour yelling and trying to get your attention only to find that you were taking advantage of your poor little sister…" She cupped her hand against her cheek and made a slightly disappointed face.

"LIKE SHE SAID IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! Anyways, can you leave for a few minutes while I change?" Shido let out a sigh before taking his shirt off and throwing it into his hamper. Miku stared at his mildly toned body as if she were a predator about to pounce on its prey. "M-Miku?" Shido felt a shiver run down his spine as he glanced over to see her checking him out.

"Don't worry about me, Darling, just do what you would as if we were married!" Drool began forming on the curves of her mouth. Shido knew he had to stop this as soon as possible.

"Out!" He walked over and grabbed her shoulders trying his best to force her out of the room so that he could change. But it was needless to say that she wasn't easy to move being a spirit and all. She adamantly resisted his actions to force her out by clinging onto the door desperately.

"It's okay, this is what we'll be doing when we're married someday anyways! You need to get used to this!" She continued to struggle until she noticed that Shido began to gently interlock his fingers between hers. She slowly loosened her grip on the door frame as she closed her hands gently around his fingers.

"S-Shido…" Miku almost moaned from his gentle touch. Noticing Miku's guard was down, Shido quickly brought her arms in as he gently pushed her out the door and locked the loose frame behind her. Miku simply stood outside of the room staring down the hallway in shock. She turned around furiously and began barraging the door with her fists.

"Hey, that's not fair! How dare you trick me like that, you devil of a man!"

Shido couldn't help but let out a little sigh before it quickly turned into a large grin.

"It's going to be a great day, I can just tell."

He undressed himself as quickly as possible in order to not keep Miku waiting too long.

A loud sigh was heard behind the door. "I'll be waiting in the living room for you then, Darling." Her voice wasn't as sweet this time around, possibly on account of her being played the way she was. But Shido knew not to think about it too much because he would cheer her up on their date. As he heard her steps walking away from the door, more steps began making their way towards his room only to be followed by a soft knocking sound.

"One second, I'll be right there!" He yelled as he tried to straighten his light grey t-shirt beneath his navy blue dress shirt and smooth out his jeans. He ran to his door and opened it. Before him stood a girl with dark plum colored hair reaching all the way down to her waist. She stood at the door almost nervously, with her cheeks slightly puffed out.

"Tohka? What's the matter? You're usually not up this early, let alone here." He watched as the girl fidgeted around before him.

"Shido…" She said in her usual innocent voice. "A-Are you going on a date with Miku today?" She looked at him with shining desperate eyes. He was taken back by her before he decided she at least deserved and answer.

"W-Well, yes, I am. She had asked me a few days ago, and ever since the, uh, "accident"… we never really got the chance to go out on an actual date." Tohka didn't really seem to be upset more like she was taking in his words at this point.

"Muuu… So you're just trying to make up for before?" She asked still a little confused.

Shido gave her a reaffirming nod.

"Yes, that's more or less the case. It would be like if I were to have never gone on a date with you." Hearing those words caused Tohka's chest to hurt for some reason. She tightly gripped the clothing above her heart.

"T-Tohka, are you okay?" Shido was worried by her bizarre motion. Realizing this Tohka immediately snapped out of her trance.

"Mmm!" She shook her head up and down furiously. "If that's the case, then you should definitely help her out, just like you did for me!" Shido had always loved how understand Tohka could be compared to some of the other spirits.

"Thanks, Tohka. I should probably be on my way before Miku throws a tantrum hahah…" He nervously scratched his head before he tried to pass by. A hand reached out and grabbed his just as he was about to head down the stairs. Shido turned around to see Tohka grabbing his wrist while looking down at the floor, her face unable to be seen beneath her locks of hair.

"What's th-" Before he could finish, Tohka cut him off.

"I'm sorry for what happened, Shido… I," She paused to catch her breath. "...don't know what came over me that day. I didn't want to lose you and just seeing you being attacked like that… I just lost it…" Shido knew that this wasn't just something he could brush off. It must have been hard on her he thought, but he never really thought about it too much. He turned around to face her.

"It's wasn't your fault, Tohka, and you know that. I really am glad that you felt the need to protect me so badly that you would lose yourself to do so. But please don't do that again. You said how you hated to see me disappear before your eyes, right? Would you want me to have to go through the same thing as you did?" While the words were meant for Tohka, he was also saying them to himself after just having spoken to Kotori. Tohka seemed lost in thought.

"No… I would never want you to go through what I had to, but that's why I have to-" This time Shido silenced her.

"Tohka, please promise me, you will at least try not to, okay? There will always be times when we do things in the moment that we can never take back, but that's why we have to make the best decisions possible. So if I'm ever in danger I'll ask for you to protect me, and just as much if you are ever in pain I will be there doing my best, okay?" Tohka lightened up a little bit.

"Deal!" Her bright smile returning to her face. "But that doesn't mean you can be reckless okay Shido?" She pointed at him knowing that he was known for it. Shido couldn't hide the fact either and nodded with a wry smile. "Good! But, uh, Shido?" Her voice now becoming inquisitive.

"Hm? What is it, Tohka?" Shido tilted his head.

"Don't you have a date to be on right now?" The words slapped Shido as the sudden realization hit him like a freight train.

"Crap, you're right! Sorry ,Tohka, I have to go!" Shido spun around and bolted for the stairs as if his life were in danger. Which it probably was going to be soon. Tohka was left in the hall by herself now. She placed her hand over her heart again.

"I feel such pain watching him be with everyone, but at the same time I can't help but smile at the thought that he's helping all of us." A small smile appeared on her face. "I can only imagine how She feels…"

Shido flew down the stairs at an ungodly like speed. He whipped around the bottom rails and flew into the living room, only to be greeted by the songstress tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, while taking large breaths to calm herself.

"H-Hey, Mik-"

"YOU ARE LATE, AGAIN!" Her voice had probably woken up the neighbors.

"Sh-Shhhh, people are still sleep-"

"I DON'T CARE, YOU'VE KEPT ME WAITING ALL MORNING AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT."

Miku furiously stomped over to where the panicking Shido was and grabbed onto his arm. She latched onto him with the force of a crocodile's jaw and dragged him towards the door, practically ripping his arm out of the socket. She ripped the door open, possibly cracking some of the hinges in the process. His doors were taking the full force of her heat today. As she was about to step outside she was greeted by a pair of orange headed twins. The one on the left, Kaguya, was visibly small in, well, many ways and had her hair braided into three parts. The one on the right, Yuzuru, appeared to be older simply because of the assets she possessed that her counterpart did not, and she had her hair braided into two parts.

As Kaguya raised her hand to greet the two at the door, Miku glared at her while the flames of rage engulfed her very presence.

"MOVE!" She angrily shouted. It was very rare for Miku to yell at girls, but when she was mad, this Diva was practically the reincarnation of relentless. Immediately after hearing the threat, the twins stepped off to either side of her and gave a mock salute as they watched Shido being dragged off. He looked back at them with desperation filling his eyes.

"WE ARE GOING TO ENJOY OURSELVES IF IT KILLS YOU." She stomped off. Kaguya and Yuruzu put their arms down and looked at each other.

"What do you think he got himself into this time?" Kaguya posed.

With a blank stare at Shido, Yuzuru opened her mouth. "Observation. No idea, but he appears to be a dead man."

Without so much as giving it a second thought the two entered the house as if it were their own.


	2. Chapter 2

The morning sun shined bright today accompanied by a small breeze to keep things from getting too hot. The town was practically empty since it was an early Sunday morning, and nearly everyone used Sunday to rest up from the long week of work. At least, all except for the blue haired boy and an indigo haired girl who seemed to be dragging said boy behind her.

"M-Miku, can you slow down? I can't keep up with you if you keep walking so fast!" He huffed and puffed trying to get his steps to line up with the strides that Miku seemed to be taking.

She turned back to him almost amused at his words. "Tell me, Darling, why do you think that I'm taking such steps…" Her voice seasoned in restrained anger.

"Well, um… it's 'cause…"

"It's because you decided to be a boy toy and take your time flirting with other girls when you had promised to take me out today…" Her voice didn't carry the same anger as before, but it certainly wasn't any happier. At first Shido didn't quite get what Miku was so upset about because he knew the situations he was in called for him to be present and help out. Yet, he also could see where Miku's apparent sadness and worry came from.

"Miku, you know I'm not that type of man," He started, slightly clenching his hand. "I promised to protect you and make you as happy as I could. I take full responsibility for not doing as good of a job as you had probably hoped, but please give me another chance to make it up to you?" Miku's face flushed a tint of red upon hearing Shido being so formal compared to earlier. She turned around quickly to hide the smile the crept its way out.

"Well, if it's going to be anyone, it's going to have to be you, I suppose, huh?" Her voice trying to sound like her old diva self. "Plus, you do owe me a date, so let's just see how well you can keep up with me, okay?" She turned back out with her tongue out slightly and her hands in little peace signs. Shido's heart raced as he saw the happiness emanating from the young girl. "Let's see what trouble we can go cause!" She sauntered on over to him and tightly wrapped her arm around his before pointing in front of them dramatically like an anime character. The two of them both began their walk through the fairly barren town.

"There really isn't much to do on a Sunday, is there…?" Shido awkwardly scratched at his face. He looked around before noticing that there was a park nearby. The place looked like any other park nothing too special about it, but he figured he may as well ask. "Hey, Miku, would you like to go check out that park over there?" He pointed at the entrance to the area before her eyes quickly followed. She looked at the entrance with a face that seemed to be calculating everything in the world at once.

"I've never really been to a park before, but if Darling thinks that it will be fun then I don't see why not." She looked up gleefully, while Shido only seemed to be in shock.

"You've seriously never been to a park before, Miku?"

"Well, for a shoot or two I think I had to come to one, but aside from that, not really. Why, is that weird?"

Thinking back on all the times he had come with Kotori during their childhood almost made him feel that it was obligatory for people to visit parks. He knew that Miku's childhood was probably much different than his, but he shook off the thought.

"It isn't weird, just something I thought you may have done before. I think you'll have a lot of fun once you really see what it's like for yourself!" His smile erased any doubts that she may have had before nodding in approval. The two strolled on over, arm in arm, to the park's entrance which seemed to be a fairly long trail.

Miku's face grew nervous. "H-How long is it?" She was never cut out for any sort of physical activity.

"Shouldn't be more than half a kilometer, if I had to guess." He looked over to see a vending machine across from a bench not too far from them. "How about I get us some cold drinks for the walk?" He didn't even have to look down to feel Miku nodding furiously into his chest. The sun seemed to be intensifying so he figured it wouldn't be a bad idea. He walked Miku over to where the bench was before gently sitting her down.

"What would you like to drink?"

"Hmmmmmm," she seemed to be putting too much thought into it, "I'd like to have a cup of Formosa Bai Hao, if you will?" While she was being totally serious, Shido couldn't begin to comprehend what he was just told.

"They don't even serve that! In fact, I don't even know what that is!" He wasn't upset, more or less just dumbfounded.

"Geez, it's just a blend of tea. How could they not have it? My house is packed with the stuff." She pouted as she turned her head away and crossed her arms. Shido could definitely see why her nickname was "Diva" now.

"I'll see what I can find…" She sluggishly walked towards the machine before looking over the choices presented. "Well, she wanted tea, so maybe some iced tea will suit her well? As for me I think I'll have a coffee. I may need it to stay awake, hahah…" He tiredly laughed to himself before inserting the money into the machine and selecting his choices. He bent down and picked up the cool canned drinks before turning around and walking back over to Miku.

Out of nowhere, his head began throbbing violently. "What the heck…" He placed his cold coffee on the side of his head to try and reduce the pain, but to no avail. Miku picked up on this a little later than she should have and rushed over to his side.

"Darling, are you okay!? What's the matter!?" She nervously awaited Shido's response, but it didn't seem like she was going to get one quickly.

Shido fell down to one knee as the pain continued to rack his brain. "Why…" He tightened his fist to try and alleviate the pain. As he tried to look up at Miku something clicked in his brain. His eyes widened as they scanned the area around them before they met Miku's worried eyes. "This is where I truly first learned about her… isn't it…"

* * *

Back at the house, Tohka and the Yamai sisters were in the living room watching one of Yoshino's operas.

"I have to admit, this really isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I mean being a denizen of the superior Yamai sisters I am sure we could make an even better story than this one!" Kaguya placed one hand over her heart and the other stretched dramatically into the air as if she were singing her own words.

"Correction. I could make a better story since Kaguya has no literary talents." The monotone voice came from besides Kaguya.

"What did you say, Yuzuru!?" Kaguya flew out of her seat and placed her hands on her hips before standing in front of Yuzuru, their faces inches apart.

"Affirmation. I said that your breath smells like the Cheetos that you ate last night, and that you should brush your teeth before I grow any sicker." To say Kaguya was blushing was an exaggeration. She had never been so red to date.

"YUZURU!" Kaguya attempted to tackle Yuzuru into the couch, but Yuzuru had grabbed the top of it and flipped backwards off of it, causing Kaguya to simply plant her face in the couch's soft pillows. "GET OVER HERE!" She stood back up and ran around the couch to give chase.

"Realization. I won't even have to run fast to lose someone as slow as you."

The two rounded the house over and over. The wind from their powers causing them to run so quickly that when they passed things they would fall over and sometimes break.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE!?" An angry Kotori could be heard shouting from her room followed by loud steps making their way down the stairs. She didn't even make it to the bottom before seeing the Yamai twins run completely around the house and past the stairs twice. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? KNOCK IT OFF!" Even though she was mad it wasn't like she really had a way to stop them at that speed.

"YUZURU IS DEAD!" The voiced echoed awkwardly because of how fast they were running.

"Correction. I am still fine. Kaguya is the one who looks out of breath. Probably because of too many snacks."

The high speed chase continued with neither party seeming willing to stop. Kotori put a hand on her head only to find that her hair was still down and that her hair bands were still in her room. She felt a nervousness growing in her chest since her "Commander-mode" wasn't really on right now. But she knew she had to do something before the twins began running so fast that a tornado would rip the house apart. She took in a deep breath hoping that this would work.

"IF YOU DON'T STOP THEN NO TELEVISION PRIVILEGES!" As her words rang through the air, she immediately heard two screeches in the kitchen. She quickly ran into the cooking area only to find Kaguya laying on top of Yuzuru and flour spilled all over them. She also looked behind them to find skid marks from how hard they had braked. Or tried to, anyways.

"Protest. Kaguya, get off of me. Your body weight is crushing my gentle figure."

"How dare you!? You weigh more than I do! And you are far less fragile than I am with you-"

"ENOUGH!" Kotori cut off their banter before it escalated any further again. "Clean this up or you'll never see a television set again! And take off your shoes!"

The twins had appeared to be defeated by the youngest out of all of them. "Understood." They both drearily said in unison. As Kotori pinched the bridge of her nose and began walking away she could hear them rustling behind her trying to get up.

"Repeat. Get off."

"Your fat is sucking me in!"

"Hey!" Another yell from Kotori silenced them as she made her way into the living room, hoping the two don't fight immediately afterwards. As she entered she had noticed that Tohka had been sitting in front of the TV silently hugging a pillow with her head down.

"Tohka, are you okay? What's the matter?" It was rare to see Tohka not beaming with happiness, so when she wasn't, it was a logical conclusion to assume that something had happened. But Tohka didn't even respond to Kotori's question. This only worried the red headed sister even further. She walked over until she was standing in front her the dark plum haired spirit. "Tohka?" Her voice somewhat softer but still firm. Upon hearing the sound the girl jumped slightly.

"Muuuu? What's wrong, Kotori?" She seemed to be in her own little world, as she had sounded genuinely confused.

"Did you hear anything that just happened?" Kotori asked, slightly taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you hear Kaguya and Yuzuru just now?"

"Hm? Since when did they get here?" Kotori was actually so shocked that she had somewhat gasped.

"They've been here for quite some time… Are you okay, Tohka?" She slowly sat down next to the saddened girl before gently placing her hand on her shoulder. Kotori never really interacted with the spirits too much, but they all knew her well enough and vice versa for them to occasionally talk. Tohka didn't respond right away. She buried her face back into the pillow and closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and looking at the floor.

"Kotori… What do you think of us spirits?" The question was so random compared to what Kotori was expecting that she had almost wondered if she had heard it wrong.

"I beg your pardon?"

Another moment passed. "What do you think of us spirits? You've been taking care of us for some time now… and I was just wondering what you thought…" The question seemed innocent enough, but Kotori couldn't make out her motive for it.

"Do you want my opinion as a fellow spirit, or as a human?" The question seemed unnecessary, but she actually had different opinions through each perspective.

"Both if you don't mind…" Tohka gripped her pillow slightly tighter.

Kotori took a deep breath before letting it all out. "As a fellow spirit I can sometimes understand what you all go through mentally. The world isn't exactly kind towards spirits, generally speaking, and not to mention that sometimes it can be hard to control what would come to us naturally such as our powers when it comes to being around others. I truly think that you all have adapted to your current lifestyles far quicker that I could have ever imagined or hoped to be possible, and you all really do deserve praise for that."

Another deep breath followed by another exhale.

"As a human… I have my moments. I still think you all are wonderful people who have lived a hard life and I sympathize with that, but the damages and noise I could live without sometimes." A small smile graced the red head's lips. "But you know, I don't think I would ever trade this life away. And I'm sure my brother feels the same way about it, Tohka." She looked over to see the girl still staring at the ground, but in her head she was sure that Tohka had been listening the whole time.

She raised her head out of the pillow so that she could talk again. "Can I ask one more thing?" She turned to completely face Kotori.

"Sure, shoot." Kotori continued to smile upon seeing Tohka moving again.

"What about Kurumi?" The air stiffened as the room fell into utter silence. Kotori's blood began to boil from the mere name of Kurumi Tokisaki.

"Why do you ask?" She took deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

"When you answered my question, you were only talking about the spirits that Shido sealed, weren't you?" It was an honest question, and the fact that Tohka had picked up on it surprised Kotori more than anything.

"I suppose you aren't wrong. I guess it's because I know you all so well it kind of swayed my opinions." Kotori tried to play it off with a nervous laugh.

"So, then, what do you think of her?" The room was silent again but the air wasn't as dense as before.

"Honestly? I don't know what to think…",Kotori brought her hands together and began twiddling her thumbs and staring at the ground in thought, much like Tohka had been earlier.

"Muuu? What do you mean?" The purple haired spirit asked, slightly interested.

"When we first tried to make Shido date her and have her fall in love with him, it was one problem after another with her. Needless to say that my brother almost died several times during that time span… including almost by my own hands…" She tightly closed her eyes and clenched her hands together from the simple thought if her powers going out of control and almost literally obliterating her brother.

"Kotori…"

The red head opened her eyes after a few seconds. "But then during the incident with Miku, she comes out of hiding after who knows how long and saves Shido from everyone, possibly even myself had it not been for Mana. She fought off Yoshino, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, DEM, and a whole town practically filled with zombies. If it wasn't for her allowing Shido to talk with Miku, or the fact that she slowed down DEM so that he could get to you, who knows what could have happened…" Tohka had been completely silent taking in all the information that she hadn't heard too much about beforehand.

"Why would she help Shido? Wasn't she trying to kill him before?" An obvious question with a not so obvious answer.

"That's exactly what my first thoughts were. But I can't bring myself to hate her simply because of the fact that if it weren't for her, none of us may be here today. Not saying that I exactly forgive her for all she's done. Maybe one day we'll find out, huh?" A small laugh made its way through Kotori.

Tohka didn't share the laugh, but simply thought through everything she had just heard. 'What was your reason, Tokisaki Kurumi?'


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3(?)

The sun intensified, beating down on the only poor people who were even at the park. Two teens sat on a bench not too far away from a vending machine in the middle of a trail. The blue haired boy seemed as if he were about to pass out, while the indigo haired woman sat beside him, rubbing his back.

"Are you feeling better, Darling?" She asked as she leaned in closer to have a better look at his face. She noticed that he had been sweating slightly.

"Y-Yeah, I'm feeling much better now. Thank you, Miku." He straightened his back out and sat up. Staring at the thick forest before him triggered memories and flashbacks to barrage his mind. He gripped onto his shirt and took a deep breath to help calm himself. "Sorry about ruining the beginning of our date already." He scratched his head and gave a weak smile. "I had just remembered some rather… unpleasant things about this area."

Miku, however, was confused. "But aren't you the one who said that we should go here? Why would you choose a place that you don't like?" Shido laughed to himself.

"No, no, you're misunderstanding me. It's not the place that bothers me, more like what happened here…" Once again, Miku did not seem to be keeping up with Shido's vague explanation.

"Okay then, so what happened here?" Shido didn't respond for several seconds, causing Miku to worry again. "I-I mean you don't have to talk to me about it, I'm just here to listen, is all." Shido couldn't help but feel slightly relieved with Miku around him. While she could be a hassle, she was definitely mature when she needed to be.

"This was the last spot on my date with another spirit. Her name was Tokisaki Kurumi." A long silence ensued between them as Shido had closed his eyes for a moment as he ran through the whole date again in his head.

"Who's that?" The question sounded silly to Shido, but he had remembered that Miku wasn't around during the time when Kurumi was more present.

"Remember when I confronted you in the concert hall before going to the DEM headquarters?" Miku put a finger to her cheek and looked up in the air as if trying to recall all the events.

"Yes. I do believe I remember you coming through the town with that gothic Lolita girl." Shido couldn't help but chuckle to himself at Miku's description of her.

"Yeah, that's her. I'm sure you've probably never really had any encounters with her prior to that event since she apparently is usually in hiding, but her codename in the Ratatoskr organization is Nightmare." Miku was slightly taken back by the dark sounding name.

"Nightmare?"

"Yeah. Apparently, before any of us had actually confronted her, she had killed over 10,000 civilians." The number drastically weighed on Shido's mind. 10,000 was not exactly a small number when it came to people's lives. However, Miku didn't seem too impressed.

"Well, the first spirit, if I do recall correctly, wiped out over a million lives because of their spacequake, correct?" Shido saw the point she was making, and even though he didn't want to correct her, he knew that he had to.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't explain that very well. She has killed over 10,000 people with her bare hands." A spell of silence was cast between them before Miku fully comprehended the gravity of what Shido had just told her.

"T-Ten thousand with her bare hands!?" She stood up from the bench and looked down at him in awe.

"Yeah… When I first dated her, she was unlike anything I had learned through Ratatoskr. She was the one who was constantly trying to hit on me and do things with me. Back then, I had no idea of who she really was or what she was actually capable of." The fight between Kurumi and Kotori played back in his mind. A growing nervousness found its way into Miku's stomach as she remembered her own fight with the mystery girl.

"She certainly was no normal spirit, was she? She had managed to fight Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Yoshino at the same time while protecting you and making an opening to get to myself…" Miku remembered the girl running up to her with Shido in her hands before sticking her tongue out at the diva. A vein may have popped inside Miku's head as she recalled being humiliated like that. "Sh-She wasn't that great…" She mumbled under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"Oh! Nothing, nothing… wait, but you said you went on a date with her, correct?" She brought her finger to her cheek again.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Then how come I never see her at the house?" Shido was confused by her obvious question and only gave her a blank stare in return.

"Well, I mean she is a spirit and you went out with her correct? So how come I never see her at the apartments or over at your house?" Shido knew what she was getting at, but didn't really know how to go about telling her.

"Well, you see, I was never actually able to seal her…" Miku was surprised. Not in a bad way, just an unexpected way. "When I was about to seal her… she killed herself. Well, a clone to be exact, but to me it was still Kurumi," The songstress had never heard of a situation like that, so she didn't really know what would be a good way to respond. As she was about to open her mouth, Shido continued. "After that is when I met the real her. The original her, so to speak. She was much more different than the other Kurumi that I had gotten to know, and I was unable to even have her acknowledge what I wanted for her." Another flashback of everyone he loved being held down by her clones as he watched a spacequake form right before his eyes played.

"So then why was she with you attacking me if you aren't on good terms?" Shido thought about it.

"Honestly, I don't know, Miku. I had nothing when she found me. You had turned everyone I had known and loved against me and Tohka had been kidnapped…"

Miku felt her heart slightly break. "I didn't mean-" Shido raised her hand to cut her off.

"It's fine, Miku. Honestly. The past is the past, and without it I wouldn't be here on a date right now with you, would I?" Miku couldn't help but feel a little flustered at his flattery after such a depressing talk. "Now," he stood up from the bench, "how would you like to enjoy this date of ours, the way it's supposed to be enjoyed?" He extended his hand to her and gave a reassuring smile. While Shido had moved on from the conversation, the last part made her realize what she had actually put him though. She slowly reached out for his hand.

"Darling I-"

UUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

"A spacequake?" They questioned in unison as they looked off into the distance where the alarm was coming from.

After her conversation with Kotori, Tohka had decided to head back to her apartment. On her way out, however, she decided that she wanted to go into Shido's room instead. She sat in a fetal position on his bed with her arms and legs wrapped around one of his pillows and her face buried on the top of it. She took in deep breaths as his covers smelled like him. Just his presence had always managed to calm her down, but since he wasn't here right now she had to settle for his fragrance.

"Muuuuu… Shido..." She had not had much sleep ever since the incident with DEM, but as of right now she could feel herself losing consciousness. Her body had felt weaker than usual since she had not been eating too much either. But for some reason the thing that was bothering her the most right now was a certain Nightmare that she couldn't get rid of. 'What happened while I was gone? Did Kurumi really change that quickly?' Her breathing slowed down as her mind began falling into a half-conscious state. 'If she's changed, then maybe-"

UUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

Immediately, Tohka flew up from her position, the piercing wail ripping its way through the air. She had gotten up so fast that as she went to get off of the bed, she collapsed onto the floor from being so light headed. As she tried to stand up a large banging sound was heard just outside of her door until it finally reached the room and the door flew open.

"Tohka, are you okay!?" Kotori rushed into the room worryingly as she noticed the spirit on the floor. She slung her arm underneath Tohka's armpit and across her shoulder as she tried to use her tiny body as a human crutch for the much larger girl.

"I-I'm fine. Sorry, I was just sleeping and I got a little startled, I guess." Tohka gave a fake laugh but Kotori wasn't focusing on it enough to even notice.

"Good, well let's get outside so we can have Ratatoskr beam us up onto the ship. Kaguya and Yuzuru should already be on the ship as well as Yoshino who had been there all day." The two girls made their way down the stairs slowly so that Tohka wouldn't fall over again.

"What's going on, Kotori?" Kotori bit down on the lollipop she had in her mouth. Something she didn't do often since she liked to make them last.

"The current situation is that a spirit is going to appear somewhere in the city. We are still trying to figure out which spirit it is, but as of right now it does not look too bad based on the possible size of the spacequake alone." Kotori kicked open the front door (the wrong way) and proceeded to make her way into an open area. Before the two knew it, they were already in the ship's teleporting chamber. The travel wasn't easy on Tohka, as she was already not feeling too great.

"Damn it." Kotori pressed against her ear, probably against another communicator device like the one Shido had. "Reine? I need you at the teleportation pad right now. Tohka needs your medical assistance, quickly." Kotori gently rested Tohka against the wall outside of the machine. "I'm really sorry, Tohka, but I need to take command of the situation right now." Kotori began taking her black ribbons out from her pockets and tying her hair into her commander-mode style.

"It's alright, Kotori, I'll be fine. You go do what you need to and I'll meet you when I can." With a quick nod and a firm look into Tohka's eyes, Kotori ran down the hallway towards the bridge. Only a few moments later did Tohka hear loud clacking footsteps headed her way.

"Ah, there you are." A messy silver haired woman announced as she made her way over to where Tohka had been sitting. "You look perfectly fine. What seems to be the matter?" If it wasn't for the fact that Tohka knew Reine so well, she would have been very concerned with the amount of sleep deprivation clearly visible all over the Analytical Officer's face. But it was this eternally tired face that made it easy for anyone to talk to Reine.

"D-Don't worry, nothing's wrong. I'm just not feeling too great. I haven't been sleeping or eating well lately so I guess the ride here only made it worse." As if understanding the situation completely already, Reine reached into one of her coat pockets and pulled out a small pill case. She unscrewed the little cap and tapped the back of the container until two pills gently fell into her hand.

"Here, take these." She extended her hand to where Tohka's was and dropped them. Tohka stared at the small tablets with unease, but she knew Reine knew more about this kind of thing than she did, not to mention that she knew she would never harm her. She quickly knocked back the two pills and swallowed as hard as she could since she didn't have anything to down it with.

After a few seconds Tohka's vision began to drastically change as she tried looking up at Reine. "Wh-What… were those…?" Her head now felt like it was spinning. Probably because it actually was without her even noticing.

"Ah, those? They were sleeping pills. I always carry them around but I never use them." Her monotone voice was practically a lullaby for the weary spirit.

"No… I have to… Shido… find… protect…" She collapsed onto the floor almost instantaneously. Reine felt bad for Tohka, but she knew that she was in no condition to try and do something as dangerous as fight while her body and mind were weakened. The fact that she admitted to being tired only helped Reine make her decision.

"Sorry, I'll have Shin make it up to you later." She walked over to the unconscious body and picked her up princess style before walking her down towards the infirmary.

"What's the status of the spacequake?" Kotori yelled to anyone on the bridge who was willing to answer her question as quickly as possible.

"Approximately 2 minutes before arrival." A woman said while vigorously typing on her computer screen.

Kotori dug into her pocket and grabbed a Chupa Chups before ravenously ripping off the wrapper and shoving the delectable item into her mouth. Whenever she was stressed she always looked forward to having her favorite lollipop calm her down. She rationally thought about the situation before her.

'Something isn't right here. This doesn't add up for some reason.' Her thoughts were interrupted by the door beside her sliding open with Reine making her way into the room. Kotori couldn't help but smile. While Reine was her subordinate, she felt like she was almost like a second mother to her. She always gave valuable advice and helped Kotori out whenever she could, on or off the clock.

"Glad you could make it." She shot Reine a moderately honest smile. A quick nod was given to Kotori. It was always hard to tell what or how Reine was feeling.

"I put Tohka down." Silence filled the air around Kotori as her heart began to race.

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, my bad. I put her to sleep. Poor choice of words." It wasn't like Reine to make such a simple mistake, but after all that's happened lately, Kotori couldn't help but let it go. "Tohka should be fine. She just needs some rest, is all. However, she is in no condition to be fighting, so she should just focus on resting for the next few days." Another quick nod of understanding was passed between the two.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. Are the other girls ready?" As if almost on cue, the sliding doors flew open again and out marched an ecstatic looking Kaguya leading the way, followed closely behind by Yuzuru and Yoshino.

"We're ready for battle, Commander!" Shouted Kaguya as she struck a childlike battle pose.

"Affirmation. We are ready to engage the enemy if needed." Yuzuru answered in her general manner. She turned to see Kaguya still in her obnoxious pose and sighed before a small grin spread its way across her face.

"We're ready," A cute little voice rang out from Yoshino.

" **Yeah we'll show them what's what!** " Her feisty puppet Yoshinon chimed in while putting his hands up and punching like a boxer.

Kotori smiled at everyone's energy. "I appreciate it. However, remember our first contact is the most important. We can't send you all in blindly firing away, or we would be no better than the AST." All three girls, and Yoshinon, hung their heads low as they realized what they had just said. They were willing to go out and fight without even realizing that this was a spirit who probably wanted to be saved, much like themselves. What had caused them to be so aggressive in the first place?

"Don't worry about it. The extra offense and defense is always needed in case things get out of control." Kotori looked around the room quickly as if she had just remembered something. "Hey, where's Shido?" She looked out into the sea of workers. Her voice a little more stiff this time. "Weren't you all supposed to pick him up?" The cabin was in a slight panic as they never liked it when Kotori got angry. It meant that their day probably wasn't going to be an enjoyable one.

A man stood up amongst the crowd, obviously trying to get the Commander's attention. "Ah, well you see… He's currently on a date with Miku right now and they're taking cover in a building. So we can't exactly beam him up until he comes out at the very least." A loud sigh was heard from Kotori.

"That idiot. He knows that he should try at least getting in contact with us when the alarm goes off. Well, at the very least, be ready to pick him up once he comes out so we don't waste any time trying to explain the situation to him."

"Yes, sir!" The cabin yelled in unison as the ship began to move to the location where Shido was.

Kotori turned to the three spirits to her side and opened her mouth to say something before she was interrupted again.

"Commander!" The same girl as before shouted.

"Hm?" Kotori turned back around. "What is it?"

"We have an unexpected error in the system!" The worker seemed frantically trying to find what was wrong.

"An error?" It was rare to hear of such a thing occurring on the Fraxinus since it was far beyond what anyone could even consider human technology. "What kind of error?"

"I-I don't know! You know how when a spacequake appears we are usually able to identify the spirit before they actually come into this world?"

"Yeah? What about it?" Kotori's response was a little harsher than she probably meant it to be.

"Ah! Sorry, of course you know that!" The worker tried to calm herself down. "Well, you see, we have a confirmation that we've witnessed this spacequake before."

"So then what's the problem?" Kotori asked more directly as she was not in the mood to be beating around the bush at such a crucial moment.

"Well, the systems are saying that they don't have an actual match for the spacequake." The spirits looked at Kotori in confusion and concern.

"What do you mean that the spacequake isn't registered to a spirit?" Kotori's eyes widened in a sudden realization as the computer screen showed the blast the size of a small tactical nuke going off in the city destroying everything not too far from them. The explosion ripped the ground apart and sent glass and metal flying through the air with ease. Thankfully, they were too high to actually be hit by the debris.

After things had calmed down on the screen, the camera zoomed in on the crash site as tons of AST also began swarming the location. Only something was wrong, and both sides knew it almost instantly upon seeing the site's center. There was no spirit.

Shido fell onto his bottom with Miku not too far from him as the shock from the quake rippled through the air and collided with the walls of the building. Thankfully, they were far enough from the actual explosion to not take any severe damage. Nothing but a few broken windows and possibly some exterior damage. He and Miku had escaped to the closest building; the park information center.

It was a fairly large building and had multiple floors, each meant to help the park, or its goers, in various ways. Upon entering, Shido had taken the first elevator down to the lowest floor as it were a hurricane he were protecting them from. He figured that the basement stood the best chance of withstanding the blast as opposed to one of the higher floors.

"Miku, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" He stood up from the floor and walked over to Miku with his hand extended in order to pick her up.

"I do believe I am fine, Darling. Should we try to get in contact with your sister?" She took his hand and hoisted herself up.

"Yeah, I suppose we should. Give me one second to contact her, okay?" He walked a few steps away and put his hand in his ear, only something felt off. There was no communication device. "Damn it." He cursed himself. In all the confusion this morning he ran out of the room before he was fully prepared for the day. "Wait a second!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. No matter what he never forgot his phone because it was always next to his wallet. He flipped open the phone and looked at the screen before his face fell. No service.

"What's the matter, Darling?" Miku walked over to look at his phone only to see the 'No Service' caption at the top. She couldn't help but let out a small giggle.

"Today really isn't my day is it…?" Shido shut his phone with a sigh before shoving it back into his pocket.

"It's almost like you bring it upon yourself." Miku added sarcastically.

"Hah hah. Well, the spacequake is over, so maybe we can make our way to the surface now and hopefully the Fraxinus will be able to find us. After all, I'm sure that they are worried that we aren't there as another spirit was appearing. He looked towards the stairs that they had used to come down into the basement with. "Come on, let's try and get to the Fraxinus as soon as possible." He grabbed Miku's hand and led her towards the stairs.

"Oh my~ you're being so forward today, Darling~" She teased, but Shido tried to ignore her as he made his way over.

As he was about to start climbing up the stairs, he felt his ears ringing. He turned to look back before noticing a small hole next to the rail he had just set his hand on. Suddenly, a shiver shot down his spine. His heart began racing and a cold sweat crept its way through his skin. He turned around to see Miku looking behind them with a mildly horrified expression on her face.

"Ara Ara~ Greetings, Shido-san. It sure has been a while, has it not?" A maniacal laugh echoed through the darkness of the basement before loud boots could be heard making their way to Shido's location. Shido almost thought his heart was going to burst from the anxiety. The dark figure's face appeared, half covered by the outside light and half covered by the darkness of the shadows she crept out from. Her crimson-red and black dress shined as the light reflected off of it.

There was no mistaking it.

"Tokisaki… Kurumi…"


	4. Chapter 4

Ch 4(?)

"There's… There's no spirit?" Kaguya announced the obvious through the thick silence of Fraxinus's crew members. She stared wide eyed at the screen scanning it over a few times in case she had missed anything. Yoshino breathed a sigh of relief before high-fiving Yoshinon now that they no longer were in danger of fighting.

"Confirmation. Nothing appears to be there. At least that means no danger." Yuzuru added before turning slightly to get a better look at Kotori. As her eyes locked on to Kotori's face, she felt her own heart almost stop. Kotori was in an absolute panic. Her face grew paler and the hairs on her skin stood up as if on high alert.

"K-Kotori… Are you okay?" Yoshino whispered out from behind Yuzuru as she also caught a glimpse of her face. Kotori stared down at the ground as if she had just witnessed a murder.

"Kotori?" Reine's soft but direct voice shook her out of her state.

"Reine… I think I know why the Ratatoskr's mainframe was unable to pin a match to a spirit…" Kotori slowly stood up straight as the sight of the empty crater entered her vision again. "There's only one possibility as to why a spacequake would occur and no spirit could be detected or found…" Reine took in the words her superior told her and thoroughly analyzed them as fast as she could. When she had finally picked up on everything, her face slowly dulled further as if time itself was rapidly accelerating around her.

"It's not that a spirit was coming into our reality, but rather a spirit already here had to have made it." The shock hit the crew harder than it did the spirits.

"Um, what do you mean it was made by a spirit already here? I thought spacequakes could only occur when a spirit was manifesting itself in this world." Kaguya was basically asking anyone who could answer her. Mostly Reine or Kotori because the rest of the crew seemed too disturbed to want to answer. Reine turned to face the three spirits.

"Yoshino, you were there when this occurred. Though you probably were asleep at the time, weren't you?" The twins turned towards the ice spirit who hid behind Yoshinon in embarrassment.

" **Hmm, I do happen to recall you fellows talking about something like this. But I could have honestly cared less since it sounded too complicated.** " Yoshinon answered, albeit in a much different way than Yoshino intended.

"Just as I thought. Anyways, in the past we have witnessed three spirits who were capable of manually creating spacequakes through sheer will." Reine turned her head towards Kotori.

"We have, haven't we…" Kotori thought back to when she had forcibly taken her powers back and summoned her own spacequake to cancel another occurring at the time. That kind of power terrified her honestly but she had no other choice but to try at the time.

"Whoa… There are really spirits that can do that!?" It was hard to tell if Kaguya was shocked in a bad way or an excited way. "That's incredible!"

"Analysis. If there are only three spirits then it should not be hard to figure it out, no?" Kotori laughed to herself. But not her normal giddy laugh, or her commander laugh when she laughed at someone; it was a laugh infused with anxiety.

"It's much simpler than even that, honestly… One of the spirits is currently dormant…" She cut herself off. She knew she shouldn't bring up the fact that she was once a spirit herself. At least not now, anyway. "The other was, Miku, who is currently sealed away and with Shido. Which means we all know exactly who the only other spirit that could cause this is." The cabin remained silent further until a hand shot up into the air.

"Well, uh, we kinda have no idea! So if any of you would inform us that would be kind of great." Kaguya awaited a response yet again from anyone. And yet again it was Reine who decided to speak up.

"Her codename is, Nightmare." Reine walked over to one of the computer terminals and began typing in a bunch of commands. Seconds later a data chart appeared on the screen with a picture of the spirit in question. "She goes by the name Tokisaki Kurumi." The twins stared at the picture before giving each other a glance of annoyance.

"I feel like I've seen her before…" Kaguya began gently hitting her head as she ran through her thoughts furiously. If the twin tails and crimson red and black dress didn't give her away enough, not many people had a heterochromia mix of red and gold eyes.

"Agreed. I feel as though we have met her before." Yuzuru closed her eyes trying to think back on it.

"Do not worry about it too much. She was the spirit who faced you during the mishap with Miku. The reason you all probably can't recall is because Miku's powers are blocking your memory during the time that you were under her control."

"Wait, we fought her!? And she lived!?" Kaguya seemed surprised. She had no idea that she had been fighting while under Miku's control. Who knew what else she or Yuzuru may have done without even noticing. Though the fact that apparently this girl was able to fight Kaguya and Yuzuru at the same time impressed her.

"Yes, that is correct. If what Shido told us is true then she also fought Yoshino as well." Kaguya's jaw almost dropped, her sister not bothering to hide her amazement either.

"No way! She fought all three of us!? Is there any way we could see this?" She asked, almost desperately. This time Kotori decided to respond.

"Sorry, but this isn't the time to be looking at the past. Not to mention we probably don't have any feed of the event for… other reasons." By other reasons she meant her and the rest of the crew being controlled and almost killing everyone before being knocked out. But who needed to know about that?

"I remember her…" A quiet little voice arose again from the back of the room. "I think I remember seeing her before." Kotori seemed surprised before she had realized that Yoshino had been with everyone during the Kurumi incident.

"That's right, you were there when Shido was dating her, weren't you?" Kotori remembered Yoshino teleporting herself around all day trying to prevent the trio of Ai, Mii, and Mai from capturing Shido and pummeling him to death after what he was caught doing with Kurumi. However, Yoshino firmly shook her head.

"No. I remember her from when… they were married because Shido had to take responsibility." Not only did the crew remain silent, but everyone did.

"SHIDO HAD TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!?" Kaguya shouted shattering the silence like a baseball through a window.

"Noted. If Miku did not kill him by now, he will surely feel the wrath of the Yamai sisters." Both of them had flames in their eyes. While they weren't overly attached to Shido, more with each other than anything these days, they still couldn't believe that the man who had captured their pure maiden hearts could have been such a beast.

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Kotori shouted out to silence everyone before she slightly hid back down from embarrassment. "It was just some stupid wedding set up that they had going on at the time of the annual festival." The twins sighed in relief as they felt that their purity was still somewhat intact.

" **Oh ho, I also remember when she pinned Yoshino down and stole a kis-** " Yoshinon chimed in before having his mouth forcibly shut by a tiny hand.

"Sh-Shhh! You can't go saying things like that, Yoshinon!" Right as another heated discussion was about to emerge, Kotori had just realized how long they had been spending idly chatting.

"Enough!" She looked at the main screen only to see that some of the AST had already started to pull out. "Kaguya, Yuzuru, Yoshino, I'm sorry to say but we will be needing you today." Even though she had said this, Kaguya and Yuzuru looked more than happy.

"Don't worry. Anyone who dare harms Shido will meet their end!" The flames of passion burned in Kaguya as she cracked her knuckles.

"Agreed. Those who mess with our friends shall not be shown any mercy." Yuzuru smiled. The only one who didn't seem to want to go was Yoshino.

"I-I don't know if I want to fight her… She scares me…" Yoshino admitted to everyone.

" **Oi, Oi, you have to go! Your precious Shido is out there waiting for his princess to come and save him!** " An image passed through Yoshino's mind of her in knight's armor leaning over Shido in a dress while he's asleep and waking him up with a kiss. Steam began to pour from her ears as she nodded embarrassingly.

"I-I'll do it!" She seemed to snap herself out of her old mentality and into a new one of protecting those she cared about.

"Thanks, Yoshino, we really do need all the help we can get." Just as Kotori shot the three a thumbs up, she heard the sliding door to her right open this time. She turned to see a man with long blonde hair walking through while whipping his hands off with a cloth.

"Hm?" He looked around the room before noticing that all eyes were on him. "Did I miss something?" The room practically sighed.

"And just where have you been, Kannazuki?" Kotori leaned on her hand as she asked in a flat and slightly annoyed tone.

"Me? I was down in the lower levels helping the engineers repair the Yggdrafolium that had been damaged at the beach when we were under attack. So far everything on them seems to be good to go, as far as I have tested." Kotori nodded in a somewhat satisfied manner, as he at least had a valid reason. She knew that he was quite intelligent when he needed to be, just never around her, apparently.

"As you can see, we are having quite the problem here." It wasn't until Kannazuki looked over to see the three spirits on board and the nightmare on the screen that he had grasped the situation.

"And it is quite the situation indeed. Your orders, Commander?" How bowed gracefully with his hand pledged over his heart.

"As of right now, Shido and Miku are in the building below the Fraxinus since he was taking shelter there before the spacequake occurred. Our assumption is that Nightmare was the cause of it since no spirit was found at the site of the incident." Kotori pointed to one of the crew members who pulled up the footage of the explosion and the empty crater that followed.

"A tactical diversion?" Kannazuki stroked his chin. "Seems a little overboard to blow up part of the city just to see someone, don't you think?" He had a point and Kotori knew it, but she couldn't think of any reasons for any of this.

"We are dealing with the most dangerous spirit right now. I wouldn't put it past her to think that she wouldn't go to such lengths." Kannazuki knew what she meant, and in its own sense was a terrifying thought.

No one was generally hurt from the spacequakes themselves lately because of the fact that civilians were usually underground, but just the thought that she would risk killing all those people and irking the AST, and not to mention DEM, was not a thought most people would have. Though Kurumi also wasn't like most people.

"I see. So it's a simple rescue mission before the predator finds her prey?" Kotori shot him a disgusted look at his analogy but just sighed it off.

"As of right now that's the plan. We need to grab them before Nightmare manages to make contact with the two of them." She pointed to Reine this time, who was now sitting at her own computer panel, and had her bring up the building at hand on the main screen.

"Kaguya, Yuzuru, Yoshino, I will be needing you three to infiltrate the building as quickly and efficiently as possible. I ask you all to stay together in case things get nasty. Your primary goal will be to get Shido out of there ASAP with the least amount of confrontation possible. Hopefully we won't have to worry about that." The last part was a gentle whisper.

Kotori realized that she had sucked dry the stem of the Chupa Chups and reached into her bag and quickly ripped off the wrapper of another one before shoving it in her mouth. As she looked back at the screen, she noticed that the livestream of the building looked a little off.

"Hey, can we get someone to clear up the screen? The picture's quality seems to be a little off." She watched as her subordinates looked at each other in confusion before trying to fix the minor error.

"Commander, everything seems to be running smoothly. The Fraxinus isn't picking up any irregularities." A man spoke out.

"Strange. Why wou-"

"Commander!" Kotori jumped slightly as the shouting man removed her from her thoughts.

"No need to yell, I'm right here!" Kotori slightly stood up from her chair as she lectured the man like a child who had just broken their toy.

"S-Sorry about that, but the Fraxinus is picking up spirit waves coming from the building! We're analyzing them right now!" The man quickly turned to his screen and began typing rapidly.

'Could it have been Miku who had activated her Astral dress? Maybe something happened and she needed it to protect Shido?' Her mind then clicked onto something she didn't think of prior and her lollipop almost fell out of her mouth. 'Or did Kurumi already-!?' She spun her seat towards the spirits.

"I need you three out there right now! I have a bad feeling about this." The three spirits and Yoshinon gave Kotori a mock salute before rushing down to the teleportation chamber.

"I'll race you, Yuzuru! First one down to the teleporter gets to have a date with the damsel in distress!" Kaguya took a sprinting stance next to Yuzuru.

"Shock. Even in this situation you always manage to act like a child." Yuzuru felt a light smile grace her lips as she looked at her sister. "Confirmation. Let's race." Yuzuru got down into her running position as well.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaand go!" As Kaguya shouted for the start of the race, the two were already out of sight and a tunnel of wind was left in their wake.

" **Oi, Yoshino, you can't let those two beat you to Shido! Or else you'll never get the princess!** " Yoshinon pointed down the hall for Yoshino to follow.

"I can't run that fast!" Yoshino hung her head down in defeat.

" **Well, you sure won't get anywhere just standing here! Onward!** " The puppet shouted as he tugged at the little arms of his owner.

"Y-You're right! For Shido!" Yoshino gave a weak battle cry.

"Crap I almost forget. Hey, Yoshino." The little girl turned before realizing that something was thrown at her. She reacted as quickly as possible and caught the items. "Give everyone one of those communicators so that I can contact you when you get down there."

Yoshino nodded before lightly jogging down the hallway.

A loud sigh came from the Commander's seat. "What am I going to do with these spirits…" She couldn't help but smile at the thought of sounding like Shido. "I just hope we make it in time, Onii-chan."

"K-Kurumi!? What are you doing here?" Shido asked as he unconsciously stood in front of Miku to protect her.

"Ara ara~ Is that how you greet me after all this time, Shido-san?" She brought a hand to her lips and gently licked one of her fingers. Shido felt a shiver go down her spine. While it may have been attractive when some girls did that, coming from someone who tried to eat him before gave Shido a whole different vibe.

Miku poked her head out from Shido's back as she tried to get a look at the girl before her: Red and black dress, uneven pig tails, heterochromia. Miku made the connection easily.

"Darling, isn't that-?" Her soft whisper was cut off by Shido.

"Yeah. That's Tokisaki Kurumi." Shido confirmed as he stared directly into the eyes of the woman trying to kill him.

"Oh my. Is this the spirit that you were trying to save the last time we met?" Kurumi glanced over to the songstress hiding behind Shido. "Heheheh, where are my manners?" She laughed slightly as she grabbed the ends of her dress and gave Miku a small courtsy. "Greetings, my name is Tokisaki Kurumi. I am sorry that we met under such extreme terms last time, but I hope you will treat me well?" Her voice was engraved with mild sarcasm and a sadistic undertone.

Miku stared at the girl up and down trying to take in her image. 'She is kind of cute…' Miku broke away from Shido and slapped her cheeks gently. 'This is no time to be trying to pick up cute girls!' As she felt her focus coming back to her she came around and stood beside Shido rather than behind him.

"Glad to meet you as well, my name is Izayoi Miku. It is nice to finally meet the Spirit who made a mockery of my performance on that night." While Miku was never proud of her actions on that night, she also knew she couldn't let that hold her back from being with everyone. She had never done anything to make it up other than a few words of apology, but she was happy that everyone knew that she at least tried. She was planning something in the future for them but that was tons of planning away.

"Ah, I must apologize. You see, I'm not into the type of innocent music you perform. So hearing it echoing throughout the city began to give me a real headache." Kurumi shrugged with a smile.

However, Miku almost felt like she popped a vein at the thought of her music annoying someone. 'M-M-My music... annoying!? How dare this woman desecrate my wonderful work by calling them annoying!'

Shido felt a shiver go down his spine. He remembered that once during dinner with everyone, Kaguya had voiced that she was not particularly fond of Miku's music. It wasn't that she disliked it, but simply that it wasn't her cup of tea. Needless to say that what happened afterwards was simply, and literally, a mess.

"Ara ara~ did I pop a nerve?" Kurumi chuckled to herself.

"Miku, don't let her words get to you, okay? Your music is wonderful! Honestly!" Upon hearing Shido's words of confirmation Miku took a few deep breaths to cool herself down.

"Sorry about that, Darling." Miku hung her head down slightly in embarrassment.

"It's okay, Miku. Anyways, why are you here Kurumi?" Shido asked as he could only wonder.

"Straight to the chase as always I see." She mocked. "As I am sure you know, my powers require me to use some of my own 'time' when I call upon them. Well, as I'm sure you can guess, the battle with DEM, and not to mention the Spirit there beside you, took quite the toll on my supply that I had been saving. So I came here in hopes of making a deal with you." She took a few steps forward, while Shido took a step back. He knew Kurumi probably could have killed him and Miku by now, but he couldn't help but be skeptical about her offer.

"A deal?" Shido tried to hide the fear that was bottled up in his throat.

"That is correct. You see, I have the ability to make up for all the time I lost, but I would have to use more, 'immoral methods', which would take quite some time now that DEM probably does not care for me very much right now." Her face was completely nonchalant as she made air quotes. Shido knew exactly what she meant and had to force his nausea back as the memories of the forest reemerged. "So here is my deal for you, Shido-san. I will promise to not consume anyone's time for a few weeks, so long as you repay me for the time I had spent during that night." A mischievous grin made its appearance on her face, while a nervous one made its way across Miku's.

'She has to use her life just to fight and survive? That's cruel…' Miku felt downcast at the thought of her having to kill just to survive. Compared to Kurumi, Miku felt that she had it almost too easy.

Shido was shocked. Obviously he knew that the choices were not fair, but in retrospect he could understand her point of it too. He had used her very life to fight and save his friends. Not to mention that he would be saving the lives of a few people from her clutches. At least for now.

"I would have no problems with your terms, but now is not the best time, Kurumi. A new spirit has appeared and I can't have my strength taken before I can at least contact my sister and confirm everything." Kurumi shot him a somewhat confused glance.

"I have not sensed the presence of any new spirit lately. Are you sure you are not just making an excuse to run?" Kurumi summoned her pistol and aimed it at the two before her.

"Of course not!" Shido yelled as his heartbeat increased. "Why would I have any reason to lie about something like that? Didn't you feel the spacequake going off?" Kurumi looked genuinely confused.

"Ah, you mean the one that went off just now? Do not worry about that, I simply created it to distract everyone while I came to talk with you." The words almost sounded fake to Shido. The fact that she had gone to such lengths just to talk to him was terrifying.

"So what do you say, Shido-san?" She sauntered on over to him until she was interrupted by a certain diva standing between them.

"Don't do it, Darling! It could be a trap! What if sh-" Shido felt his ears ringing again as a loud bang was heard from in front of him. He looked in front of him only to see that his shirt looked different than it had earlier. There were splotches of red liquid all over it. His heart froze as he looked at the girl standing in front of him suddenly fall to the floor.

"MIKUUU!" He rushed to her and kneeled down beside her so he could keep her head up. Her side had a fairly large hole in it from the bullet shot. He looked over to Kurumi with an unrivaled anger. He could feel the spirit powers within him grow restless as if waiting to be summoned.

"Ara ara~ don't be so hasty to judge. If you agree, I can save her as well with Dalet." Shido remembered Kurumi shooting herself with a bullet and rewinding the time around her until her own wounds were healed.

"D-Darling…" Miku coughed below him. He felt some tears come up as he looked at the beautiful girl riddled with pain before him. He shut his eyes tightly before looking back up at Kurumi.

"You promise to save her?" He had to grit his teeth to hold back his anger.

"Of course. I am a woman of my word, after all." She gave another courtsy. He knew that deep down despite how immoral her actions were, she had never actually lied before. He gave her a firm nod as he wrapped his arms around Miku's body and picked her up bridal style.

"What a wonderful choice, Shido-san. If you would be so kind as to follow me?" Kurumi opened a portal behind her. It had looked very similar to the one she put Miku and Shido in before to talk. He carried Miku into the portal.

"I swear I'll make you better."

"Look, all I'm saying is that you must have cheated! We all know that the true queen of speed is me!" Kaguya boasted as they walked down to the lower levels of the building followed by Yuzuru and a very worn out Yoshino.

"Regret. I hate to inform you but I was the winner by .3 seconds, therefore the date with Shido is mine." Yuzuru almost had a sparkle to her knowing that she had won another of their competitions.

"I'm not giving up just yet, Yuzuru! One day we really will have a final competition to see who the better one is!" Kaguya raised her fist into the air as if a spotlight had acknowledged her as the lead role in a play.

"Agreement. One day we will determine who can fend off evil better than the other!" Yuzuru felt a fire ignite in her heart as well.

'Though I know it will be you.' The two thought as they gave each other a large smile.

"Alright, everyone. You're one floor away from where the readings came from. Be alert as you enter the area." The group's earpieces went off as Kotori announced that their destination was at hand.

"Do you think Shido is okay?" Yoshino quietly asked the others.

" **I'm sure he's just being Shido. He's always getting into trouble but always manages to find a way out. Geez, what a lucky guy.** " Yoshinon added as he shook his head in disapproval.

"Yeah, there's no way my stupid brother isn't fine. But he might not be fine when he gets back." The sound of cracking knuckles could be heard from the other side, and all the spirits felt a shiver go down their spine.

"There's the last stairwell! Let us become ninjas and sneak our way down!" Kaguya pointed out.

"Caution. Let's not get carried away either; we need to stay safe." They slowly began making their way down to the stairs of the basement. When the last few stairs came into sight, Kaguya jumped all the way down, barely breaking her fall by using her wind, and held up her hand as if it were a gun.

"Nobody move! We're here to save you, Shid-" She cut herself off as she looked around.

"Retaliation. Didn't we all just agree not to do anything rash?" Yuzuru scolded Kaguya as if she were playing the older sister.

"Y-Yeah, I guess, but you see-"

"No one's here…" Yoshino chimed in as she stepped onto the hard floor of the basement and didn't see anyone but the twins.

"That's strange… Everyone here is saying that that was where the Fraxinus pinpointed him to be. Look around for any possible clues."

"Understood!" The spirits spread out through the basement. Even though it wasn't enormous, it was still big enough to take a few minutes to look around.

Yoshino had been looking around for a minute before she heard a splash on her shoe. "Hm? Is it raining in here?" She looked up but didn't see any clouds.

" **Don't tell me that you used your powers just because you couldn't find Shido?** " Yoshinon seemed to sigh, but Yoshino quickly shook her head.

"What's up, Yoshino?" Kaguya came over.

"The ground is wet, for some reason." Yoshino pointed to her wet shoe. Yuzuru came over after hearing all the commotion.

"Worry. That's not just some liquid; that's blood." The room went silent along with the communications from the Fraxinus. The next thing everyone knew they heard a warning siren coming from the communicator and a bunch of ruckus.

"I'LL KILL HER!" Kotori cried out for blood.


	5. Chapter 5

Ch 5(?)

The Fraxinus crew was in a totally panic. Many of them running around to get help from the lower levels while the rest surrounded the Commander's chair cautiously.

"C-Commander, please calm down." The cabin began to heat up as Kotori began to lose control of her powers. They couldn't have any of their equipment overheat at such a crucial time, let alone be cooked alive like a crab.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" Kotori's breathing was continuously becoming heavier with each passing second. She tightly clenched her chest as the fires of wrath filled her body and her old spirit energy consumed her very being. "How dare she... To think I was almost thankful for her for saving my brother…" She still could not begin to comprehend why Kurumi would kill her brother now. She had an easy chance in the past where no one would oppose her, so why would she do it now? It made no sense to her, but since her senses were slowly disappearing, nothing began to make sense in her mind. She looked around the room as if searching out for her next prey. The crew all kept their arms up in the air as to not startle her as they slowly approached.

"Everything will be fine Kotori. We must simply find the beast of shadows and slay it with Excalibur in order to save the princess! No harm shall come to us since we are all in this together." Kaguya's voice came echoing out of the Fraxinus speakers. Hearing Kotori yelling caused all the spirits to worry since they knew it had to be a real problem when it actually occurred.

"Agreement. There is no reason we need to fear this nightmare so long as the three of us have one another. We will stand together and save Shido from her dark grasp." Kaguya sounded as if her sisterly instincts were taking over and she just wanted to give Kotori a hug and tell her that everything will be okay, but in her mind she was without a doubt worried for Shido's safety.

"We can't have Shido waiting on us after all he's done, that wouldn't be polite." Even though Kotori couldn't see her smile, she knew in her heart that Yoshino was smiling as best as she could to keep everyone's spirits up.

" **That's right! How could we call ourselves knights in shining armor if we kept our princess waiting in her castle! We have to go straight into the monster's layer and rescue her! Or him in this case.** " Yoshinon pointed into the air trying to encourage everyone to continue on their next adventure together.

"Kotori, think about it." Reine called out to Kotori as she approached closer than any of the other members. The temperature of the room was practically boiling for any human at this point and someone needed to do something before they would all perish. A sad way to go for an organization that was trying to help the spirits.

"If Shin were to die, then his mana wouldn't be slowly flowing back to you. It would all come back to you at once. Since you haven't fully become a spirit again that must mean he is at least alive." Kotori stopped in the middle of her episode and thought about what she had just been told. It's true, if Shido were to die then all the spirits would most likely gain their powers back. But since she didn't become a spirit again, it must have meant that she was slowly taking her powers back from Shido because of her mental state decreasing. He had to be alive, at least for now.

"Unless…" What if Kurumi was slowly devouring Shido's powers? Then they would have no way to tell if he were alive or not. Nightmare could simply be toying with Shido and Miku before her feast. Her ability to slowly drain the lifespan of others was made apparent when she had taken over the school.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Kotori slapped her face several times trying to break away from the horrible images passing through her mind of Shido being tortured or possibly killed. The crew jumped back slightly fearing that something else had gone wrong.

The little commander took a few staggering breaths as she looked at the building being displayed on the monitor before her. Totally cut off from the world in its own isolated location with only one way to enter and two ways to exit because of the emergency exit out back. Yet that didn't stop Kurumi from sneaking past one of the largest monitoring organizations on the face of the planet. Kotori truly felt unsafe in every regard. No amount of heightened security could prevent this monster from walking into the living room one day and trying to make a meal out of them. The thought was not a fun one, but it was reality. With one final sigh she looked back at the crew tentatively.

"I'm sorry for my little incident everyone, but the spirits are right. We have to go in assuming that Shido is alive, and at best, still well." The cabin gave her a warm smile as their commander had returned to them. Not to mention that the room was slowly beginning to cool down. Kotori turned to Reine quickly and mouthed her a small 'thank you' before she was given a small smile and a nod back.

"Kaguya, Yuzuru, Yoshino, I need you three back outside and ready to be ready to beamed up within the minute. If we find any traces of Shido I want to trust you all with his safety and retrieval." The sound of three people cheering could be heard across the mic along with a 'Rodger'.

"Everyone, I need you to search the area for any signs of Reiryoku being used. She couldn't have gotten very far so start with a 5 mile search radius." The chairs before her quickly filled with their respective crew members as each tried to search an assigned quadrant within the radius given.

Kotori twiddled the lollipop stick around in her mouth before realizing that it was completely empty and riddled with her teeth marks after she had slightly lost control. She took the stick out of her mouth and threw it into the can besides her. The trash was filled with nothing but the lollipops since that's almost all she would ever eat while she was on board the ship.

She reached down into to her bag a pulled out another one, but as she was about to open it she stopped. She stared at the lollipop almost as if she were confused. For once, Kotori actually didn't want her favorite candy. He stomach felt nauseous, her brain was in a mess, she had been sleep deprived, her anxiety levels were still fairly high right now. All of these would usually be reasons as to why she would generally have one in the first place, but something else was off. Reine took note of Kotori staring at the candy as if she were staring into a dark void and walked on over to her side in order to keep the conversation to themselves.

"Is something wrong with it?" Reine asked in her motherly tone.

"I don't think anything is… I just can't bring myself to eat it." Kotori's sullen words almost gave Reine a heart attack. She had been working with the Commander for about half a decade now, and she had never once turned down her favorite Chupa Chups. Reine could only imagine it was the stress of the situation getting to her, not to mention that she was still a young woman. She had school to deal with on top of being the commander of such a huge crew. Reine couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"It's alright, Kotori. I'm sure we will save Shin." While Reine was still talking in her usual sleepy tone, Kotori felt that there was a sense of reassurance to the words. She began trembling as tears made their way to her eyes.

"He will be okay, right?" The words seemed to be directed to herself more than Reine. "We'll find him and he'll be okay, right?" Reine came in close to her and pulled the almost crying girl into her embrace. This wasn't an embrace from a co-worker to her commander, this was from a friend to a friend.

"You have no reason to worry, everyone is doing their best. Shin will be fine and home before the day is over." Kotori nodded into the older woman's chest trying to convince herself that everything would be fine. She couldn't help but savor this feeling.

"Commander, we think we have a possible trace on the whereabouts of Nightmare." A crew member called out in the midst of Kotori's angst.

"Is the location far from here?" Kotori only appeared to half care at the moment. She hadn't prepared herself enough mentally for this.

"Approximately 3 miles away on top of a building near the center of the city. Only one Reiryoku presence can be detected at the moment." That meant that neither Shido nor Miku had used any of their powers yet, or that it was already too late for them to be detected. Even if they were to fight Kurumi it would only serve to increase her desire to torture them even further for resisting.

"Understood. Plot a course for the city as soon as possible after extracting everyone." She stared at her lollipop again. "Let's get this nightmare of a date over with." The crew sat in silence and turned back towards the commander. Kotori slowly picked up on the sudden change of atmosphere after a few seconds of utter silence only to find the entire crew staring at her as she surveyed the room.

"Wh-What?"

"It just doesn't sound the same when you're depressed, Commander." It wasn't until then that Kotori realized how different she had become. She felt like a hollow shell of her old self. As she looked down at her lollipop one more time, a huge smile came across her face. Ripping off the wrapper she threw it to the floor and stood out of her chair tall and proud.

"Let's begin this date!" The whole crew roared and cheered before getting back to extracting the spirits.

"They really needed that you know." Reine stood by her side as she overlooked the crew. Kotori plumped herself back into her seat.

"If me faking my happiness will make everyone's day a little better, than I may as well try." She wiggled the lollipop around in her mouth a little. "It tastes sour."

Shido couldn't see anything through blackness of the world before him. All he could tell was that he was ever so slowly walking forward with Miku still half-conscious in his arms.

"Just a little further, Shido-san. Heheheheheh." The voice seemed to ring through the shadows. Shido couldn't tell if he was getting any closer to her but he knew he couldn't stop for Miku's sake. Her skin was becoming colder and she was staying fairly silent due to blood loss. Yet as much as he wanted to help her, he saw no end in sight to all of this darkness. He felt as if he had at least walked about a mile and carrying her was becoming no small feat either.

"Darling…" Miku cried as she gripped onto his shirt from the intense pain of speaking. It almost felt as if the shot may have clipped part of her lower lung since talking felt excruciatingly painful.

"We're almost there, Miku just hang on. You shouldn't talk too much." As much as Shido tried to plea with her, Miku seemed unfazed by his request.

"Was I… like this before?" A few coughs followed before a long silence. She had done a lot to Shido, but nothing he would consider near what Kurumi had done.

"Of course not, Miku. You may have done some things that were not the most admirable, but you did care about the girls around you. You always pampered them and treated them well. I can't blame you for forming a vendetta for males, but you changed. You opened up and accepted those who wanted to help you. Don't ever think yourself like Kurumi, Miku." A faint smile graced the songstress's lips.

"Thank you…" Her body fell lip as she faded into unconsciousness. Had Shido not been able to feel her pulse in the hands that he was carrying her in he may have lost his sanity. She was a good girl, even if she had some terrifyingly perverted thoughts at times.

"Here we are." A small light began making its way into Shido's line of sight. He had been walking in the darkness for so long that the light was nearly blinding to him. Taking his first step out into the light he noticed that the scenery was completely different than that of the basements. From the dreary depths of a basement to what appeared to be the rooftop of a skyscraper. Approaching the edge of it he could see the entire city before him. Everything seemed to be nothing more than a spec from this height. He looked around the roof top to trying to find the spirit that brought him here.

"Kurumi! Oi, Kurumi!" Facing where he had come from, he noticed that the portal was gone and that in its wake stood the spirit of menace.

"Glad to see that you could join me on this date, Shido-san." She cocked a sly grin and lazily strutted on over to where he was. Normally Shido was patient when it came to Kurumi's antics, but she had gone too far for his comfort this time.

"I'm not in the mood, Kurumi." His eyes were daggers piercing the very existence of the terrifying spirit.

"Ara ara~ what a terrifying look. I beg of you, please spare me. Kihihihihi." Kurumi's mocking tone was slowly causing Shido to lose what little control of his anger he had left. Surveying the ground before him, he gently rested Miku's body down. As her waist made contact with the concrete of the rooftop she visibly cringed. Her face was pale, her blood soaked her clothing, and her eyes appeared to be drained of all life.

"We had a deal, Kurumi. Please fix her." Shido's voice was firm but at the same time laced with concern. It was unlike Kurumi to not keep a promise, but that didn't mean she possibly couldn't find a way around it.

"Jumping right into things as usual aren't you? If that is what you wish I would be more than happy to grant it, but for a price of course." Slowly she raised her hand to her mouth only to have her fingers be graced by the gentle caressing of her tongue.

"Another deal? But you said that if I came with you, you would save her!" He took a step forward as if to challenge her.

"Oh my, no need to get feisty so early on Shido-san. There will be plenty of time for that later." A light crimson blush graced her face, but Shido's remained stern. "I did not say that I would not save her just that I wish for something to be done first. By the looks of it I would not be sitting here arguing with me while this poor maiden is in dire need of assistance." Shido clenched his fist so tightly that blood almost began to escape his veins.

"Fine what do you want me to do?"

"Oh it's quite simple really. You should know by now what I want you to do." The unresolved question only left Shido to ponder on what Kurumi could have possibly wanted from him.

"I don't have time for your games, Kurumi. Just tell me what it is that you want!" His temper began to flare again since his time was running short.

"Ah, not even going to take a shot at it? Well that's not very enjoyable." She shrugged at his hopelessness. "Well I suppose it can't be helped. Shido-san, do you remember the day we fought on the school rooftop?" Memories flew through his mind at the mention of the first real battle that almost cost him his friends and family.

"What does that have to-" An epiphany struck him as his eyes widened and his mouth slightly opened. Kurumi easily picked up on his change of spirit and laughed manically to herself.

"Yes, yes, that's right Shido-san. If you want to save the life of this woman who appears to be so very dear to you, you know what you must say don't you?" Even after all this time, he could never forget how terrible the incident with the false Kurumi was. Before Shido had managed to convince her that he would save her, there was one thing she had wanted him to do for her, and in exchange she would release everyone from her fatal grasp.

"Kurumi… I-I…" A war raged on in his mind. What was the right decision? Did he save his friend who was near death by agreeing to the devils terms, or did he refute the corruption and possibly lose someone dear to him. There was no one guiding him this time. No one who could assist him in making this decision. His next words would either save a life, or take one away.

"Say it, Shido-san. 'I will not try to save you.'"


	6. Chapter 6

Ch 6(?)

"Come, come, she can't hold out much longer if you keep making her wait! Kihihihihihi!" The crazed laugh lingered in the blue-haired boy's mind. Miku was slowly but surely bleeding out and she appeared to be clinging on to what little amount of conscious she had left.

"Kurumi… you know, I… I promised to save you, and I won't go back on my word!" Shido spoke the words into the ground below him, but stood his ground none the less. Kurumi, however, made a face of utmost annoyance. She held out her hand longingly before her flintlock pistol filled in the space. Taking aim before her, she pulled the trigger.

"A-Ahhhh!" Shido's eyes closed and his body cringed upon hearing the loud shot of the bullet. After a moment he soon realized that something was off. He didn't feel any pain. He opened his eyes to see that the gun barrel wasn't pointed at him. His head flew around.

"G-Gaaaaaaaah!" The body who was nearly unconscious behind Shido surged with pain as another hole appeared, this time in the diva's leg. Tears poured down her face as she turned her head to face the man whom she had loved so much.

"D-Darli…" Her voice cut out as she entered unconsciousness. Blood began boiling and the anxiety levels pushed their limits.

"MIKU!" Shido ran over immediately to cradle the girl swimming in her own blood. He placed a finger to her forearm attempting to check her pulse.

Seconds passed by and nothing could be felt. Shido felt his veins throbbing with each powerful beat of his heart sending blood through. Finally he felt a pulse running down her arm, and another shortly followed. He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. A small desperate laugh seemed to barely escape his throat. Her body had probably just shut down from the amount of pain it had received in order to prevent any more suffering. Not to mention the amount of blood she had lost by now must have been near critical levels.

"Would you look at that? She seems to be trying so hard just to stay by Shido-san's side. You shouldn't make a lady suffer like this. Especially one as delectable as this. Heheheh!" The malicious spirit licked her fingers yet again.

Shido gritted his teeth to the point where they felt as if they were going to shatter under the immense pressure. His fists were bundled up besides the sleeping girl's head ready to punch the ground with all the force he could muster. He wanted nothing more than to wake up from this dream, but he knew deep down that there was nothing that could wake him up from reality.

"Zaphkiel!" Kurumi raised her empty hand into the air before the space behind her twisted and warped as her angel came into view. "Choose your next words very carefully, Shido-san." Her voice was sugar coated as she took aim at Miku yet again. "Will you save your damsel in distress, or will you let her become fodder?" The words struck Shido's almost shattering heart. All he had to do was choose an option now, and everything would change.

A cold sweat began forming on his forehead. Would he really let a friend of his die just to attempt to save another person? Would he be able to live with himself if the girl who he had just saved, who he helped trust humanity a little more, who he had just gone on a date with and shared an unforgettable memory with, die for the sake of someone who might not even want to be saved? The feeling of his stomach beginning to churn from the angst was easily felt.

"Please… forgive me for everything that has happened… Miku…" Shido whispered.

He slowly rose his head until it met Kurumi's predatory, shining eyes. It was only when she saw the expression on his face did she even falter slightly. He was on the verge of tears. What caught her off guard the most was that he didn't look sad, but that he appeared to be smiling at her. A forced smile maybe, but one that she knew he shouldn't be wearing right now.

"N-No matter what," Shido tightly clenched his fists trying to hold back his unease, "I can't give up on you, Kurumi. I know you can be saved even if I have to die trying. I won't try to save you, Kurumi; I will save you." The rooftop fell silent instantaneously.

Neither party spoke to one another as time had seemed to stop around them. Kurumi, ever so slowly, hung her head down, letting a small shadow cast out her face. Shido lifted his foot as if he were about to take a small step forward before coming to a quick halt upon hearing something that he in turn didn't expect.

"Haaaa…." A long sigh came out of the gothic Lolita. She picked her head up and stared Shido down with a very unamused look. "You always have to be so over dramatic, don't you?" Shido's eyes light up upon the unexpected reaction.

With a dry throat he began to ask, "Kurumi, what do you mea-?"

Before he could finish, Kurumi summoned her rifle into her empty hand. "Dalet." She positioned her body, halfheartedly at best, into the four o'clock position in front of Zaphkiel before an eerie black ooze flowing into the barrel of her pistol. She took aim at the spirit who was now barely alive beside Shido. With a quick pull of the trigger a shadowy bullet flew through the air and was seemingly absorbed as it made contact with the girl. Before Shido's very eyes he could see time reversing itself.

Miku's skin began to regain its former color while her eyelids gently parted. The next things Shido knew, Miku shot up from laying down on the rooftop.

"Wh-What?" With a look of bewilderment she gazed at her hands as if they were a strangers. Lowering her head she watched as the hole in her stomach and the side of her leg closed upon itself like nothing had ever happened. As the last part of it finished up, Miku felt overwhelmed with emotions. So many feelings were flowing through her mind in such a short time that no comprehensive thought process could even hope to be created. Her head jolted to the side to see an equally astounded Shido.

"Darling!" As if flying through the air, Miku lunged herself at Shido with a force that knocked him clear off of his feet and onto the hard flooring. "Darling, Darling!" Miku nuzzled her face against Shido's with such ferocity and speed that it was a wonder that a small fire didn't start. Being so overcome with joy, Shido did not even care and he happily embraced the spirit back. He could feel tears dripping down her face and onto his.

"You did it, Darling! You saved me yet again!" Miku sat up and brought Shido's head with her as she firmly pressed his face into her generous bosom.

Even if this was some type of way the universe decided to congratulate him, it did not change the fact that oxygen was still a requirement to live. And right now that was the last thing that was reaching him.

"Miku… I can't… breathe…" A muffled voice echoed through the enormous mountains that were known as Miku's chest, but none of it audible enough to make heads or tails of.

"I knew you could beat that devilish girl to save your princess!" She now nuzzled his head with her cheek.

"Pardon the intrusion, but I am still here, you know?" In less than a heartbeat, Miku jumped off of Shido who collapsed against the ground gasping for air. Miku stood in front of him to act as a shield, just as she had, unintentionally, the last time.

"What are you still doing here!?" A hissing sound could almost be heard from her words. Kurumi seemed to pay no mind to it, however.

"I do believe it is me who you should be thanking for healing your wounds, no?" Kurumi wore the smile of an innocent child who broke a toy and fixed it before her parents found out.

"You're also the one who did this to me!" Miku barked back.

"Ara, ara~ did you forget that I am the only reason you are with this man right now? Do you really think that you would be sharing such an intimate moment with this man with the childish way you were acting had it not been for me allowing him to reach out to you?" Hesitantly, Miku dropped her guard. She knew she was completely in the wrong in the past, but that definitely did not mean that she appreciated her enemy bringing it up to use against her. Deep down, she knew Kurumi wasn't wrong though.

"What do you want? Why would you go through all of this trouble?" Still glaring daggers at the nightmare before her, Miku couldn't help but try and slow her heart rate by holding her breath. The red and black gothic dress swung back and forth while the frail looking girl sauntered on over to them.

"Stay back you bit-" Miku cut herself off as felt Shido place a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright, Miku. As unpredictable as she is, she has no reason to toy with us if she wants something. If she wanted to, she wouldn't have even brought us here. She would have made little work of us back in the basement." Shido's face looked firm, but Miku could feel small trembles making their way through his hands. "Kurumi, tell us what you want."

"Well, I told you, Shido-san. I want your tim-"

"I'm talking about the real reason you brought us here, Kurumi." Kurumi was slightly shocked at his last remark.

"Oh? How did you know?" Shido slightly laughed to himself.

"As I said how you could have killed us before, you had no reason to bring us all the way out here just to do that." The Lolita spirit nodded approvingly with a smile on her face.

"What you say is correct, Shido-san. However, my previous offer still stands. If you want to give me some of your time to replenish what you have taken from me to save a few of those 'precious' lives in the future, it would be most appreciated." An agreeing nod was sent back her way.

"I have no intention of letting you kill, and for what you did for me that night it is the least I could do." Shido gently grabbed Miku's hand and gave it a light squeeze. Miku couldn't help but blush in excitement at Shido's cool line in the face of evil.

"Wonderful! That makes things so much easier for me." Finally making it to where Shido was standing, Kurumi placed her cold hand against his face. Her eyes appeared to be slightly glazed over from the heat of the moment. Miku on the other hand was practically tearing apart one of her handkerchiefs with her teeth trying to hold back her jealously.

Shido felt a small jolt go through his body in reaction to Kurumi's actions. There were many reasons she could be considered the 'most dangerous spirit', and this was definitely no different.

"As for the reason I called you out here...~"

"No, Kurumi! Get away from him!" Tohka stood at the entrance to the high school rooftop. Before her, Shido was being held to the ground by a clone of Kurumi while what appeared to be the real Kurumi was pointing her rifle at him.

"Ara, ara~ you're just in time." Before being able to rush to his side a clone of Kurumi appeared behind Tohka restraining her with her rifle and pulling her onto the ground. The real Kurumi marveled at the sight as she watched Tohka trying to fend off the clone and break free.

"No need to be in such a rush. Shido has been waiting like a good little boy, so I wouldn't want to keep him waiting any longer. I will save you for last~ Kihihihi." The real Kurumi turned back towards Shido. Tohka watched as Kurumi slowly began walking over towards him.

"Shido! SHIDO!" Tohka yelled at the top of her lungs while still uselessly struggling to break free of the clone's grasp. Tears filling her eyes as a darkness seemed to be enveloping her vision.

"Don't worry, dear, this won't take very long. I promise~" With the smile of the devil himself, Kurumi grabbed Shido's face and brought it closer to her own. Their lips now mere inches away from one another, Kurumi couldn't help but lick her lips delicately. "Finally we will become one~ Kihihihihi!" Tohka's eyes were filled with rage and sorrow. She didn't have the strength to save Shido yet again.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" The vision before her shattered and her eyes flew open, only to be greeted by a harsh white light.

Shooting up from where she was, Tohka took a look around her and noticed that she was no longer on that horrid building, but rather in what seemed to be a small white room with a few monitors around her. She placed her hand over her heart and felt it racing out of control. Her stomach wasn't feeling much better, either. Just the thought of the dream made her feel as if something was going to come up, even though she hadn't eaten for almost a whole day.

"It was… just a dream…" She let out a deep sigh. Lately, Tohka had been receiving many similar dreams since her kidnapping by DEM. Shido was always in trouble right before her very eyes, and every single time she was unable to do anything about it.

Looking down, she noticed that she was neatly tucked into a small white bed. She grabbed the light sheets that were covering her legs and lower body and gently threw them off of her now overheating self.

"How did I get here?" She thought back and remembered that she had just teleported onto the ship and wasn't feeling so well. That's when Reine came and gave her some pills. Everything after that seemed to be too much of a blur to remember.

"That's right there was a spacequake! I have to find Shido!" In a slight panic she looked all around the room before finding a door on the left side of the room across from her. She ran through the room before grabbing the handle and practically ripping the door open. She took all of two steps before crashing into something and falling onto the floor.

"Muuuu…." Tohka shook off the dizziness of the impact and looked up to find that a certain red head was also plumped on the ground before her.

"Hey, watch where you're-!" The red head shouted before opening her eyes. "Oh, it's just you, Tohka. Are you feeling better already?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah… I guess I am feeling better than before. What are you doing here, Kotori? Where are we, anyways?" Tohka stood up and extended her arm out to the little sister who quickly grabbed it and pulled herself up before letting herself into the room.

"We are on the Fraxinus. Don't you remember beaming up here?" A small nod was given to Kotori.

"Sorry, I don't think I have ever been in this room so I guess I was just a little worried." Tohka lightly scratched her head in embarrassment. The last time she woke up in an empty room did not hold the best memories for her.

"Note to self, give spirits a tour of Fraxinus." Kotori mumbled.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Oh, nothing. Well, right now we are on our way to a certain location and we had a few minutes till we got there so I figured I would check up on you quickly. I can't say I expected you to be awake so quickly…" Kotori figured it may have something to do with Tohka's metabolism. It was possible that the medicine passed through her body so quickly that the effects were not in full effect.

"Hm? Where are we going?" Tohka was surprised since it didn't seem like the ship ever moved much.

"We're on our way to find Kuru-" Kotori quickly shut her mouth. "I mean, we're off to get Shido." Even with the quick fix, Tohka had caught the error.

"Kotori… were you about to say… Kurumi?" Tohka's blood pressure was rising again and her previous anxiety levels returning.

"C-Calm down, Tohka! There may be nothing wrong! We are just going to a spot where we detected a spirit's presence, although right now it's unconfirmed as to who it may be. We expect that Shido and Miku are with this person." Tohka, however, seemed to be doing anything but calming down.

"Where are the others? Weren't Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Yoshino supposed to be here as well?" Kotori flinched.

"Well… they're waiting right now by the teleporters. They're on standby in case Shido needs any help." Kotori knew she wasn't lying completely, but that it wasn't the truth as well. They were waiting to leave because he needed help.

"Kotori, you have to send me with them!" From her voice alone, Kotori could tell that she was begging to help.

"Like I said, Tohka, we don't even know who-" A knock came from the door as the handle twisted and the door was pushed open.

"Kotori, we've reached the destination. It seems that Kurumi and Shin have already-" Indigo eyes met blue as the analysis officer entered the room. "Oh, my, I didn't expect you to be-"

"You said 'Kurumi and Shido'! I need to leave now!" Trying to make a break for it, Tohka charged for the door before a pair of long arms and legs in a white coat blocked her path.

"I know you're worried about Shin, Tohka, but we can't have you leaving right now. You're not in good enough health to fight." Ignoring the words completely, Tohka squeezed her way underneath Reine's arm and rushed down the hall to where the teleporter was.

'I will save you this time, Shido! I swear!'

An audible sigh came from back in the room.

"That couldn't have gone much worse…" Kotori crossed her arms and shook her head.

"My apologies. I shouldn't have started talking before I entered the room. I did not expect her to be awake after all the sleeping medication I had given her." Reine made a small note in her head that if they ever needed to put Tohka to sleep in the future they would need a lot more than she thought.

"It's alright, I don't blame you for this. Maybe it's better that we don't keep something like this a secret from her. Anyways, what were you trying to say before?" The little sister twirled the lollipop around in her mouth in anticipation.

"Ah, yes. We have confirmed that Tokisaki Kurumi is on the roof of a building with Shin and Miku. Both of which seem to be unharmed." A small weight was lifted off of Kotori's shoulders at the mention of such wonderful news. "However…" The red head perked up.

"'However' what?" Concern was now filling her insides.

"We have detected an irregularity in Kurumi's thought pattern. We have no idea what could've set it off, but we have collectively decided that we should resolve this matter quickly before anything strange becomes of this." Kotori didn't seem all that worried, as of matter of fact she had a small smile on her face.

"Well, then, I guess it's time for the Commander to make a personal appearance."


	7. Chapter 7

Ch 7(?)

"K-Kurumi… You can't be serious, can you?" A horrified looking blue-haired boy stared into a pair of red and gold eyes.

"Of course I am, Shido-san." As if she wasn't close enough to his body, she began pulling herself up until the hot breath from her mouth could be felt in his ear, which caused his body to stiffen.

"I will not force this upon you, but it would be wise to keep in mind what I may have to do should you not agree~" She traced her finger down Shido's abs and gave a few quick licks and nibbles to his ear.

Miku watched in aggravation as Shido's knees were visibly giving out under the intensity of his situation. Not being able to hear their conversation from where she was standing was not helping her cause, either. One handkerchief after another, Miku could not hold her jealous nature in and shredded the poor towels apart with her teeth. It should be her causing Shido to tremble at the knees for her, not some random gothic chick.

"I can't… I just can't agree to that, Kurumi…" Tightening his hand and shutting his eyes in aggravation, Shido knew he couldn't give in to the temptation of this seductress. Kurumi pulled away from the man so that their faces were in front of one another again, but her smile never faded.

"As I have mentioned, the deal is up to you and you alone." Kurumi pushed off of Shido's body and allowed herself to do a little twirl before catching her footing a few feet away.

"I must admit, I never pictured you to be the man who would put his family and loved ones in danger~" The spirit bit her lip enticingly.

'His family and loved ones? Could she perhaps be talking about… us? Are we in danger?' Miku tried to grasp the situation from the few words that were audible to her but the lack of context and information were not doing her justice.

"They have nothing to do with this, Kurumi!" A small blaze could be seen inside of Shido's eyes. No one was going to threaten his family as long as he was there to do something about it. Unfortunately for him, his words went into one ear and came out the other.

"I am glad to hear that you will be accepting my offer, then. I could never be with a man who didn't protect his loved ones~ Kihihihi!" She was toying with him again and he knew it.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" His left foot shot forward as if warning the manically laughing spirit to back down.

"Ara ara~ so do you really intend to reject my wonderful offer? I feel that it is quite fair for the both of us, really. Your family remains safe and out of harm's way and all you have to give me is a simple s-" The golden and red eyes sharpened as the malicious spirit ducked right as a shard of ice flew past where her head once was. She pushed off the ground intensely to create some space between herself and Shido.

Picking up on the projectile's appearance, Shido quickly began looking around until his eyes caught the glimpse of two orange haired girls floating a few hundred feet from his position.

"El Kanaph!" Two ladies joined hands before what appeared to be a mighty bow came into existence before them. Taking aim, they lowered the arrow's tip until it lined up with the pale spirit before them.

"Kaguya… Yuzuru…" Shido stared in disbelief. He never thought that he would have been found, and so quickly at that.

"Shido!" A loud shout traveled through the air. Recognizing the voice, the blue-haired boy and the indigo-haired spirit quickly turned to see a blur of purple quickly making its way over to their location. Before even being able to process what he had seen, he felt a body crash into his, easily knocking him to the floor and into a daze.

"Shido, Shido!" Picking up his head and rubbing the new bruise on the back of his skull, Shido opened his eyes through the pain to witness a girl with hair sprawled all across the ground tightly gripping torso and squeezing her face into his abs.

"T-Tohka? What are you all doing here? What's going on?" He was happy to see her but decided now was not the best time to show it, what with Kurumi standing but a few feet away.

"Are you okay, Shido? Did I really make it on time? You're safe, aren't you?" Indigo eyes cast their gaze upon his as the princess looking spirit removed her face from his body. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing how beaten up she looked over his safety.

"Yeah, Tohka. You made it just in time." The long locks of the spirit sprawled across his torso once more as she dove back into his body. However, one thing still was bothering him.

'What did she mean by this time?' The thought was quickly dismissed as a small applause could be heard not but a few feet away.

"Oh my~ what a happy reunion. It truly is a wonderful thing to have so many women surrounding you with love. Isn't it, Shido-san?" The sarcasm and teasing was almost too embarrassing to bare at this point.

"You really do never stop listening to yourself talk, do you?" Red pigtails and long blue hair floated in the wind as a pair of small figures made their way towards the crowd.

"Ara ara~ if it isn't-" Kurumi was immediately cut off.

"Back off, Kurumi. You stand no chance against all of us. Take your leave and we might be able to forgive you since Shido appears to be unharmed." Drawing closer to Shido, she made eye contact. He immediately noticed that her eyes weren't normal. They seemed to contain a small fire behind the cold stare that appeared to be etched into her being.

Yoshino quickly ran over to where Shido was sitting and looked over his body to make sure there really weren't any wounds.

"Kotori, she-"

"Save it, Shido. I will have a talk with you about all of this later. You won't be getting off so easily." Tightly closing her eyes she turned her head back towards the problem at hand. Pure malice could be felt as the Commander opened her crimson-red eyes in what seemed to be an attempt to burn holes through the woman before her.

"So scary." Kurumi cradled her body while feigning fear. "I never expected to have to see you here again, you know. I should pay you back for all the misery you caused me during our first encounter. The amount of time I had lost put my plans back quite a decent amount, you know."

Firmly grasping her flintlock pistol, she raised it until the barrel was leveled with Kotori's skull. A salty look of displeasure hung over her face. The dark spirit began tightening her grip around the trigger getting ready to fire it.

"Kurumi, wait!" Shido cried out in a panic. He jumped in between the two girls who seemed ready to have a cat fight.

Kotori didn't have her powers as of right now so if she actually got hit by her bullet, it would end the same way it did for Miku. If not much, much worse. He had to make sure Kurumi didn't find this out or it could spell trouble for them in the future.

"You'll get the time I promised you another day, just please give me a little while to think about your other offer!" Shido had no intention of actually agreeing to her other offer, but if it was able to buy them some time then the least he could do was say that he would consider it.

Almost shocked by his sudden change in opinion, the Lolita dropped her weapon.

"You'll really consider my offer, then?" Her eyes were opened wider than usual as she blinked several times from confusion. She herself wasn't entirely convinced that he would take her offer into consideration since he had so vehemently rejected her earlier.

"As long as you promise to leave peacefully right now, then the least I could do is think about it." Miku stood behind Shido with a pouty face on.

'This was supposed to me my first date with Darling, but now it's turned into a war time peace treaty.' A long sigh escaped her lips. 'Something still feels off. She must have gone through all of this for something pretty important but I couldn't hear what it was. Whatever the offer... you'll be okay, right, Darling?'

"The tables have turned in your favor, so now you seek to strike a deal with me. Very well... I will gladly accept Shido-san's offer." A smile appeared on both parties' faces. "Just remember that one day I will either come for you," She paused with a smile, "or you will come for me. Our destinies are strangely intertwined at this point. Whoever manages to conquer the other will be the one to change history, no? So, Shido-san," she twirled herself around once and looked back at him with hunger in her eyes, "Who do you think will be victorious in the end? Kihihihihi!"

Grabbing the ends of her skirt, she curtseyed before expanding the shadows below her. She turned around as to not face anyone and let the shadows consume her very being.

"Wait, Kurumi!" A voice no one was expecting called out to the malign spirit.

"Ara ara, I do believe that is Tohka-san I hear, yes?" Time was short as almost half her body was already in the shadow. She, however, still did not turn around.

"Why did you save us?" Being so to the point as usual, Kurumi was taken back. Not to mention the lack of context behind the question.

"Save you?" It was hard for everyone to tell if she was feigning innocence or genuinely asking since no one could see her face.

"During the time when DEM had captured me and Miku had taken over the people in the city, I was told you were there fighting with Shido to allow him to make it to me." She swallowed hard. "You could have easily taken him away from all of us without us even noticing, but you decided to use yourself as a decoy and risk yourself instead. Why?"

Everyone was baffled by the words coming out of Tohka's mouth. The normally peppy and animated girl sounded too serious for everyone's comfort. She almost sounded the same as when Shido first met her.

"Such an interesting question to be asked and such an ugly crowd of people to hear the answer." Twirling around yet again to see everybody, Kurumi stared down the questioner.

"If you truly want to know, how about we go on a date?" Even Kotori flinched at the random suggestion made by the killer.

"A… date?" Tohka asked in confusion. She had only ever been on dates with Shido. It almost seemed weird to her that she could go on dates with other people.

"Yes, yes, that is what I said. If you wish to know the truth then I ask you on a date. Information such as this is not meant for all ears and some private time with another spirit is never a bad thing for a loner like me." She faked crying, but no one even batted an eye to the act.

Tohka rigidly looked over to Kotori to see what she should do, but even commander-mode Kotori was having a hard time making a good call for this. Finally after a few seconds of pondering, Kotori looked up.

"She'll be there. Just make sure you are as well. No funny tricks either or I will see to it myself that you don't make it out of there unharmed." Kurumi smiled delicately and clasped her hands together.

"Wonderful, I will send you the information on where to meet me in the near future." With one last wink to Shido, she was gone from sight and the shadows closed upon themselves.

An eerie silence lingered amongst the group minutes after everything was said and done. No one moved or spoke as they all tried to take in the random events that happened on this day.

"Is it over?" Miku was the first to speak as slowly walked over to Shido and wrapped her arms around his.

"Not even close." Kotori spoke up. Taking the lollipop out of her mouth she looked at the sheen glazed across its surface blankly.

"What do you mean, Kotori-san?" Yoshino whispered from besides Shido.

"It seems that my brother and that woman had quite the interesting conversation. Something about a certain deal they made without my approval?" Shido felt a cold sweat coming up as he looked at the dark aura that seemed to be coming off of his little sister.

"Uh, well, no.. you see… I kinda-"

"Oh, and there's also the fact that you forgot your communicator at such a crucial time."

"Uh…" He began backing up slowly.

"And rather than trying to get the attention of the Fraxinus you run into a closed underground location where we can't even begin to see what you are doing or where you are." Kotori took a few steps forward.

Shido didn't even try to defend himself at this point. He knew that today had been a streak of nothing but bad luck and unfortunate events for him, but he couldn't really explain that to her in her current mindset.

Feeling something strange, or rather the lack of something, under his foot he looked back to see that he had walked backwards so far that there was no more roof left. It was then that Kotori managed to catch up to him.

"So, what would you like to say for yourself, Onii-chan?" Her smile was sweet but the death and gloom surrounding her said otherwise. Shido had to choose his next words very wisely.

"I-I'm sorry?" However the pressure did not allow that.

"That's what I thought." Kotori grabbed him by the ear and started dragging him along as she began walking in the opposite direction towards the building's stairway.

"Oi, Kotori! That hurts!" Shido awkwardly tried to keep up with his sister's long strides before being taken into the stairwell leading to the bottom of the building.

"This was literally the worse date ever…" Miku sighed and hunched herself over in defeat. Trying so hard all morning to get herself looking just right, and then having to try and force him out of his own home multiple times. All for nothing.

" **It's okay Miku-chan. If you want, Yoshino is willing to offer you her body as payment until your next date!** " Steam poured from Yoshino's ears as she quickly tried to cover up her friend's mouth far too late.

"Then let's get started right away!" Without a frame in between the end of Yoshinon's sentence and the words being registered Miku perked up. She ran over to Yoshino and grabbed her wrist gently before began tugging her along behind her.

"M-Miku-san, please wait!" She looked like a rabbit that had just been caught in a cage, desperately trying to find a way out.

"We'll first take a bath together since I really need to clean myself up, then we can caress each other's naked bodies with the many different types of soaps and oils I have, and maybe after that I can take you to my bedroom for a wonderful bonding experience, and once we wake up I could cook a wonderful breakfast before dressing you up in cute outfits!" Drool poured from the side of her mouth as she gazed into the sky with stars of excitement filling her eyes. Her date today was the last thing on her mind.

On the other hand, Yoshino seemed to try to be breaking away but all the lewd thoughts being thrown at her was making her lose her strength as the new couple made their way into the stairwell as well.

Tohka remained in place even after the others left, still looking as if she were trying to take in all the events that transpired.

"I have to go on a date with Kurumi?" She never really liked Kurumi since she seemed to steal Shido away from her too easily, even more so than Origami. But it was also true that she never really got to know her after what happened. Every time they met they seemed to be at weapons length from one another. Today being no different.

"Wait, does that mean that we have to…" The thought of her and Shido joining their lips together at the end of their dates crossed her mind. A sudden blush crossed her face and her mind was thrown into a panic.

With that unpleasant thought now swirling inside her mind, she embarrassingly made her way towards the stairwell to eventually meet up with the others and hopefully ask for more information on what a date really was.

Back in the sky, two angels remained holding a very large bow.

"Oi, Yuzuru…" The small spirit gritted through her teeth.

"Acknowledgement. Yes, Kaguya?"

"Everyone seems to be leaving without us." She watched as Tohka, the last spirit on the building, made their way inside.

"Affirmation. It appears so."

"Do you think we should follow them?"

"Denial. Kotori told us not to move once we were in position until told otherwise."

"Is that so…" Kaguya sounded to be losing faith. "This is getting quite heavy to hold up."

"Recognition. This position is not the most comfortable to stay in either."

"When do you think she'll realize to let us go?"

"Contemplation. Probably when she is done teaching Shido a lesson." The two spirits looked at each other and sighed.

"We're going to be here a while."


	8. Chapter 8

Ch 8(?)

A single light dangling from the ceiling illuminated the small room. In the center of it sat Shido with cords attached to different locations all along his body. Each cord ran to a respective machine that was set up behind the man. After waiting for a few minutes in silence, the door directly in front of where Shido was facing opened and in walked two women.

"Greetings, Shin." The dull voice belonging to Reine echoed in the small room as she made her way over to a seat across from Shido while Kotori followed suit, crossing one leg over the other and sitting up straight in her chair with her eyes closed.

"Kotori, what's the meaning of all this?" He knew he was in trouble for the many bad streak karma left him with, but being thrown into a dark room with cords wrapping his whole body was not exactly the type of punishment he had in mind. However, Kotori seemed to pay no mind to his question. After realizing that no response was going to be given anytime soon, Reine pointed to the countless cords and suction cups that plagued his body to begin.

"As you can see, Shin, the sensors lining your body right now are attached to machines that will each process different analyses. We will be asking a series of questions and the machines will help to determine whether you're telling the truth based on your heart rate, any changes of mentality, and so on. Think of it as a very complex truth detector." Taking a huge gulp, Shido couldn't help but feel a little worried.

"W-Wait, but I thought that the Fraxinus was able to pick up a person's mentality without the need for all of these connections?" It's true, since they would always relay information to him about the spirits mood even though they were astronomically far away.

"Ah, the Fraxinus does indeed have the ability to do that. However, since you're on board right now in a remote location of the ship's interior, it would be quite troublesome for one of us to have to relay the information to the other who will be interrogating you when we could just analyze and explain it in person." Reine pulled out a small clipboard from her coat pocket.

"I-Interrogation!?" His heart began rapidly beating as sweat expelled itself from his pores.

"Sorry, that I was just to make sure that the machines were all working properly." The machines whirred and beeped in response. "Everything seems to be working just fine. You may begin whenever you wish." After a beat of silence, the Commander rustled in her chair until she was leaning forward. With her fingers intertwined and her head resting on top on them she took a small breath to calm herself down.

"It's been a long day hasn't it, Shido? You've done some very risky things during the time that we left you, so we are simply making sure none of the events that occurred without our knowledge will have any lasting effects that could end in problems down the road." Even though her words seemed sincere, Shido couldn't help but feel a little off about the situation.

"Is the reason you have me all wired up because you don't trust that I will tell you the truth?" Taking in a deeper breath than earlier the Commander released the warm air and focused her thoughts again.

"It's not that we don't trust you, it's that we don't trust her." Shido's eyes sharpened as he knew exactly who she meant. "Even if she doesn't lie, necessarily, her words and actions are more cunning and may have different motives than she may let us believe." Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her favorite lollipop and with one quick pull, removed the wrapper and threw the delicacy into her mouth.

"First off, what happened this morning?" She figured starting with an easy question would ease the pain of it all. Shido looked up into space as he ran through the day's events in his head.

"Well, when I woke up, you were cradling my body, and-"

"A-AFTER THAT!" Kotori instantly turned red before she put her fist to her mouth and cleared her throat. She tried to regain what little amount of serious attitude was left from before. Noticing her face, Shido calmed down slightly and proudly wore a smile.

"I'm talking about what happened after you had left the house on your date with Miku." While Kotori was getting the introduction finished, Reine shuffled through some papers attached to her clipboard until she herself was ready to begin taking notes.

"According to our records, this outing was not an official one and was planned by you two without the help of Ratatoskr. Is that correct?" Shido gave a quick nod.

"Yeah, in fact I had all but forgotten about the date until Miku had told me about it again." He nervously rubbed his head while making sure not to cause any problems with the wires.

"Please, begin with whatever happened once you two had left the house to begin your date." Another nod.

"Well, we started out on a stroll before heading to the park since not much else seemed to be open. Shortly after that is when the spacequake alarm went off and we took shelter at the closest building we could find. Since we couldn't contact you and ask where it would appear we had to make sure we tried to be safe as possible. It was only a few minutes later that Kurumi first came in contact with us." Reine was actively jotting down everything she could while trying to make sense of the readings being given to her. After she was all caught up she looked at Kotori to continue.

"After you came in contact with her, or should I say, she came in contact with you, then what?" She leaned in closer as this was the part she actually wanted to hear about.

"After that…" Looking off into space again he recalled the deal that Kurumi first offered to him and what happened to Miku. His heart rate increased at the thought of the songstress being shot, which Reine made sure to take note of.

"Well, uh, we talked for a little bit before she escorted us to the roof of the building you found us on." As Reine was about to speak up, Kotori put her hand up as if to stop her.

"Need I remind you that your body is more honest than your words? After all we've talked about you should know that you are one of the worst people when it comes to lying or trying to hide things. We came here to understand this heinous situation you've created, so all details will be necessary if we hope to make anything work." Realizing it was pointless to try and avoid the truth, Shido hung his head in shame.

'Even without everything telling her I was trying to hide something from her right away, huh? She really is my sister.' He smiled at heart but externally he became serious.

"Kurumi admitted to being the one who created the spacequake that first started everything. She said she used it as a way to distract everyone in order for her to be able to meet me one on one. Well, more or less, since Miku was there as well." The two stopped listening after they heard a very disturbing piece of information.

"So she really would go to such lengths just to make contact." Reine stated what was also on Kotori's mind. The two both knew they would have to think of more safety precautions in the future.

"Continue." The little sister said.

"After that, she tried to get me to make a deal with her." Not only did Kotori lean in further but Reine seemed to have subconsciously done so as well.

"What kind of deal, exactly?" Kotori's eyes sharpened while examining him even more closely than before. Meeting her eyes, Shido felt slightly panicky.

"Well, she came to us in hopes of being able to replenish her time, more or less." None of the monitors changed but Kotori's attitude certainly did.

"So she basically came to eat and kill you?" Shido immediately realized his poor choice of words.

"No, no, no, nothing like that. She said that when she had agreed to help us raid DEM that she had lost a considerable amount of time in the fight and asked if I could repay her what she had lost." Scoffing at the idea, Kotori sat back up with a smile on her face.

"As if! Why would you willing give up your life when she will just go and devour the time of other?"

"Because… she promised that if I were to give her the time she had lost then she would at least stop her attacks on others for a few weeks." Thinking back on it, Kurumi didn't have to kill people to regain her time but it was the thought that she may not have been trying to kill that made Shido want to stand up for her.

"And you really believe that she will stop her attacks once you give her the time she lost? We aren't even able to track her with our best equipment, so there's no way to tell if this is a trap and if she will continue attacking people regardless. She could kill you before we could even help." Kotori shook her head with her eyes now shut.

"She's not like that!" Kotori perked up at the response. "She may not tell us what she is planning to do but that doesn't mean she would lie! You should know as much as I do that even though she attacked us, she never once resorted to deception." Shido's fierce glare was more than enough to have Kotori think twice about it at least.

"Reine, you and I will discuss what you believe is the right option later." The silver-haired woman didn't even look up as she scribbled down more information before giving the Commander a small nod.

"Okay, Shido. So what happened next?" Prepping herself again she sat forward awaiting the knowledge Shido would present her.

"After that… Ah, that's right." He remembered blood splattering before him the very next moment.

"After that, she had shot Miku…" Kotori's chair flew back causing a loud crashing sound as she flew onto her feet.

"W-Wait, Miku was shot!? But she looked perfectly fine when we saw you!" Shido didn't expect such a strong reaction, but it was to be expected after telling someone that another person was shot. Though it was the wrong time to think so, it made him feel good to know that his sister cared so much about the others.

"It's alright, Kotori. Miku was just trying to protect me from her." Even though that's how the situation was at the time, he couldn't help but hate himself for allowing such a careless thing to happen.

"That doesn't excuse anything!" The Commander's blood began to boil. "Reine, call the paramedics and ask them to look over Miku's-"

"Please, listen. After that, she gave me the option that if I wanted to save Miku, I should follow her into her shadow and she would promise to help her. I didn't know when or if I would be able to get in contact with you again so I acted on a whim I guess and tried to help her..." Looking back it wasn't the brightest idea but not many options were available.

"What would have happened if you had gotten yourself killed!?" Her voice only seemed to be getting louder though it was becoming harder to tell what she was really thinking.

"Everything worked out, okay? She promised she would help and she did. I told you she's not a liar, Kotori." His words were quiet as if in disbelief from his own statement.

"Everything's okay? That's your response to all of this? Two people could have died today and that's all you have to say about it?" Shido hung his head in shame.

"Kotori.."

"No! That's not how this works, Shido! You have people who love and care about you to take care of! What do you think would happen if they found out you were never going to return because of something like this? What if I-" Cutting herself off, she hung her own head down as a small shadow cast out her face. She turned around a picked up the chair before placing it back where it once was.

"Kotori, I-"

"Drop it. Continue with your story." All expression and emotion she once had vanished in a heartbeat. The feeling of guilt churned in his stomach but he knew that he couldn't fix things right now.

"Alright. After that, Miku and I stepped out of her shadow and had another conversation on the rooftop of the building you found us on." He waited a moment assuming that Kotori would ask him to explain more about the situation, but she never said a word. Picking up on the awkward situation, Reine decided to answer.

"Would you care to explain further as to what happened on the roof before we arrived?" Feeling slightly neglected, it took him a moment to respond.

"After we made it to the roof, she teased me for a bit before finally helping Miku. I believe she shot her with a bullet of hers that reverses time, like she did when we first fought with her." Reine made a small note to check up on Miku anyways.

"Proceed."

"After that…" Shido's pulse increased to levels where the monitor's behind him began making warning sounds. Small drops of sweat began forming on the surface of his skin. His heartbeat was racing even faster than it was earlier. Reine became worried, while Kotori didn't seem to flinch much.

"Shin, what's the matter?" Reine walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him down.

"After that… she asked me for another favor…"

"And that would be?" This time Kotori spoke up, her voice unchanged.

"I-I can't…" He shook his head.

"Shido. I'm not saying it again. Speak." Her voice now had a bite to it. Moment after moment passed by with nothing being said until he finally opened his mouth.

"She wanted-"

A small room in the apartment next to the Itsuka residence was blocked off from the rest of the world. The curtains shut, the lights turned off, the door locked. Everything leading to the world outside the room was cut.

A purple-haired girl sat curled up in the center of the bed wedged into the corner of the room. Her eyes tightly shut while she ran through the day's events again and again.

"A date with… Kurumi…" The first words she had spoken in a while, were the same words that floated around her mind every second since she had come back. The thought of possibly having to do the things she had done with Shido, with Kurumi, caused shivers to go through her body. Whether these shivers were good or bad is what she was unable to tell.

Taking her around the town, showing her a good time, getting her to fall in love, and finishing it off with a ki-

"I can't go on a date with her! She tried to hurt Shido..." Swinging her head left and right, she wanted the thoughts out of her head. She truly believed that nothing good would come of her date with Tokisaki Kurumi, but if that was the case then why did she keep thinking about it rather than just dropping it?

"She's done nothing but cause trouble for Shido, and she went so far as to try to kill him right before my eyes…" And yet she didn't feel mad.

"Why… Why can't I get her out of my head!?" She grabbed the closet pillow to her and chucked it into the wall across from her, causing the room to slightly shake. The impact the wall created caused something to click inside Tohka's head.

"Have I… Ever even talked to her?" Recalling every single time she had even been near Kurumi in the past, she seemed to have never spoken directly to her. Whenever they seemed to meet, they were always pointing their weapons at one another or Tohka was trying to fend off Kurumi from stealing Shido with her charms.

"I've never… given her a chance, have I… I mean, I let her have her chance to try to be with us, I suppose, but after the events on the roof I never even once tried to convince her again..." Tohka had given Shido the comfort he needed when he had lost his way while trying to save Kurumi, but she herself never tried. She hadn't even taken the first step.

"That's it, this is my chance to help Shido! If I can convince Kurumi to at least come to our side then we wouldn't have to worry about her attacking us anymore." The memories of her capture from DEM came back.

"And more than anything… I can finally find out why she helped save us."


	9. Chapter 9

Ch 9(?)

"Oi, Shido! Get out of bed already or you'll be late for class!" A rustling sound could be heard from the other side of the door as Kotori knocked loudly.

"C-Crap! I'll be ready in a second, I just didn't hear the alarm go off!" A loud bang was heard followed by light curses as Kotori presumed he was rushing almost too much.

"Geez, what am I going to do with him..." She pinched the bridge of her nose before turning herself around and making her way downstairs.

In the kitchen, Tohka could be seen shoving food into her mouth as if the events from the previous day had not even happened. A large smile on her face that showed she didn't have a care in the world.

'Man, I wish I could have that ability.' Kotori thought to herself before taking a seat next to the glutton. Something felt off, though.

"Hm? Wasn't Yoshino supposed to be joining us today for breakfast?" She looked around the kitchen and the living room but no sign of the small rabbit girl could be found. Taking a break from shoving food into her face, Tohka swallowed the last bit of food in her mouth before trying to respond.

"Reine stopped by this morning and asked me to tell you that she got back very late yesterday from being with Miku and that she needed to rest up, or something." A small shiver ran down Kotori's spine. She probably should have tried to prevent Yoshino from entering the lion's den, but other pressing matters had to be dealt with first and foremost.

As Kotori was about to begin eating her food the doorbell rang. With a small sigh she put down the fork that was about to enter her mouth and walked over to the door before pulling it open.

"Well, if it isn't Kotori! I thought for sure Shido would be answering as he usually does." A cheery voice came from the smaller pair of girls standing at the door.

"Confirmation. Is Shido okay?" A duller voice came from the older looking one.

"Kaguya, Yuzuru; come in. Shido's just being lazy as usual and hasn't managed to pull himself out of bed yet. Food's on the table, if you guys are hungry." Kaguya dramatically made a shocked face while placing her hand to her chest.

"Are you telling me that someone other than Shido knowns how to cook?" Joining the act, Yuzuru leaned onto Kaguya's shoulder.

"Blasphemy. No one other than Shido knows how to cook in this house." Feeling a nerve popping, Kotori tightened her grip on the door while feigning a smile.

"I know how to cook too, you know!" She shouted through gritted teeth.

"Impossible. Only Shido can cook a delectable meal for all of us." Kotori slowly began closing the door on the twins.

"H-Hey, we're joking, you know! Don't shut the door on us!" Kaguya grabbed the door, trying her best to prevent it from shutting fully.

"Apparently there's no food here so why don't you go find some?!" The two battled back and forth for a few minutes before Kotori began to grow tired from all the work and just decided to let the two in.

"I swear, the fact that you two are probably the most stable of all the spirits will never cease to amaze me…" Kotori turned around and walked back into the kitchen. She took her seat again and picked up from where she had left off.

"Good morning, Kagaya, Yuzuru!" The twins shared a wave with the purple-haired spirit before taking a seat of their own.

"You know what they say, Kotori, 'love wins all wars'!" Kaguya embraced Yuzuru with a tight hug before fawning over every last detail of her sister.

"Approval. It was also a prank for leaving us outside for 3 hours after you had all left the building yesterday." Yuzuru leaned her head against her sister's taking comfort in her warmth.

"Oh, is that so? Well, apparently Miku finished with Yoshino a little earlier than expected yesterday if you would like me to arrange for the two of you to take her place?" A dark thought passed through the twins as the shivered in unison.

"Wh-What were we even talking about, Yuzuru? I had completely forgotten!"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all."

"That's exactly what I thought." Kotori smirked before she began picking at her food again. Not too long after that footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs.

"Hm? It smells like breakfast was already made." Shido's obvious comment made the twins snicker before a sharp glare from Kotori quickly set them back to normal.

"Kotori? Did you make breakfast for everyone today?" Looking at the table before him a few plates of food were in everyone's respective spots. It wasn't anything big like he did but it was still impressive.

"Why is everyone so surprised that I made breakfast for a change!?" The twins were desperately trying to hold in their laughter at this point.

"I just figured that since everyone had it hard recently I would try to do something nice… Plus you wouldn't get out of bed, Shido, and we had to leave soon!" Shido seemed relieved that his sister seemed to be doing better compared to the other day, but he felt that the shots being fired at him were a little less than necessary.

"Sorry, sorry, maybe I could make it up to you all by cooking a big dinner later? How does hamburger steak sound?" The table erupted into cheers at the mention of everyone's favorite food.

"Hamburger steak, hamburger steak!" Tohka flew out of her chair and began her favorite food dance. Seeing the girl so blatantly happy would make anyone smile, if it wasn't for what had happened.

"Wh-What!?" Kotori flew out of her chair throwing Shido into a panic.

"Wait, Kotori! I told her that I would need some time to think about it! You know there's no way that I would agree to something like that!" The monitors attached to Shido began beeping more rapidly again as the discussion alone bore down on him.

"Why on Earth would she ask you of all people for something like that!?" Clearly pissed about it Shido couldn't help but regret telling her about it. Though he knew it was better sooner as opposed to later.

"I don't know, Kotori… but we can't do it! I have to tell her no!" Kotori bit her finger.

"Now wait just a minute, Shido." Both Shido and Reine seemed shocked that Kotori was thinking about anything other than giving a cold hard no to the spirit whom she came to despise.

"Kotori, you can't be serious, can you!?" Shido went to stand, but all the cords attached to his body pulled him back into the chair.

"Calm down, Shin. As much as we both do not care to agree to her terms, Kotori would never say such a thing unless there was a reason for it." Sitting back in his chair slightly, the blue-haired boy glared at his sister, awaiting her response.

"I'm not saying that we should go along with this whole charade of hers. It will no doubt end in a bad spot for us should we agree to it, but you have to realize that saying no to her isn't the most favorable option either." She lightly kicked the chair that had fallen in frustration. "Geez, there really is no safe way to go about this, is there?"

"Would you mind telling me what you're talking about, Kotori?" Shido wasn't a mind reader, so having his sister speaking so cryptically to him only caused his patience to thin.

"I think I have an idea what she is trying to say." Reine now stood up. She walked over to the chair that Kotori had kicked over and picked it up for her. She gestured for the Commander to take a seat, which after a sigh, Kotori nodded and took her place.

"Tokisaki Kurumi is not the most outgoing of spirits, nor can she be the most subtle. She is generally on either extreme with few instances of being in the middle. I'm assuming that Kotori thinks that should you find her and give her the answer she isn't looking for, there's no telling whether she will respect your words, or take control of the situation to make her goals possible. Or am I mistaken, Kotori?" A small nod of the head and another sigh was all the little girl could muster up.

"I told you, Kotori, she's not like-"

"I know what you said, Shido!" Her voice was visibly angry. "It's your job to trust the spirits and do what you think is best, but it's my job to get you there safely and help prevent you from making stupid mistakes! You can't always trust people, Shido. No matter how much you may want to help them…" Her voice went from deafening to delicate, and with it dropped Shido's pride. He gripped onto the chair he sat in trying to expel the anger building up in his body. Everything Kotori said had been one hundred percent accurate.

"I just can't let her be the way she is, Kotori. Someone has to save her, and if not me, then who else will?" With his head hung down he clenched his teeth to the point that they felt they were going to break.

"You never listen, do you…?" She turned to Reine. "We have a lot of things to talk about later. I'm sorry, but I might need you to stay later than you were scheduled, again."

"No worries. We should take care of things while they are still under our control. I do wish to know, however, if you feel it would be appropriate to warn the other spirits about her objectives for their own safety." Kotori pondered the question. While it wasn't appropriate to make a rash decision about something important, it would be easier to inform them sooner as opposed to later.

"For now, we shouldn't worry them. The more they know now, the more stress will build up on them. It would be best not to push them too hard should something turn bad." Accepting her decision, Reine made a note before returning to the topic at hand.

"Shin, you were the only one who communicated with Tokisaki Kurumi about this. Were you able to pick up on any strange behaviors or anything that may have led you to find her motive?" Reading people wasn't really his thing but he tried to think of their whole conversation.

"The conversation was more or less interrupted before I could further ask what she meant, but… maybe we're the ones who are reading her words wrong?" The two ladies before him seemed puzzled.

"Elaborate, Shido. I don't feel like reading your mind today." In the back of his head, Shido wondered why that seemed to be ironic from earlier.

"What if there is another meaning to her words, but what we are seeing it as isn't what she meant?" His mind wondered back to the maniacal words the deadly spirit whispered to him.

' _I want a spirit._ '

"Shido, Shido!" Hearing his name being called over and over he looked down to see Tohka mere inches from his face.

"T-Tohka!?" He scrambled backwards, almost tripping on himself.

"Muuu… You've been staring off into space for so long that we're going to be late, now!" Doing a quick double take of the clock, Shido realized that they were ten minutes later than usual.

"Oh, crap! Sorry, let's hurry on down to the school!" He turned to his side to see the twins still sitting down and enjoying their breakfast.

"Kaguya, Yuzuru, come on, we're going to be late for school!" He scolded, but the words barely fazed them.

"Kukuku, are you forgetting who you are dealing with, my kinsman?" Kaguya flipped her hair before shoving another piece of toast into her mouth.

"Acknowledge. None are faster than the children of the hurricane. You need not worry about us being late since we will make it there before you, anyways." There was no doubt that they were fast, but being so carefree about it didn't make Shido feel any better.

"Alright, we will see you two at the school, then!" Shido kicked on his shoes as he followed the already ready Tohka to the door.

"Don't forget to lock up!" Kaguya waved him off telling him to leave already. Getting the hint he closed the door and ran after Tohka who was practically already out of his sight.

"Question. You don't actually plan on running all the way to the school, do you?" Approving of her sister catching on to her plan, Kaguya couldn't help but smile.

"Why rush when a certain someone can transport us there in the blink of an eye?" With a huge grin Kaguya glanced over towards Kotori who was slowly eating her bread. Feeling the eyes staring at her, the little red head glanced up.

"What?"

"Would you be so kind as to have the Fraxinus transport us to school so we won't be late?" Kaguya boasted a pearly white smile so large it was almost unbefitting of her.

"Ooh? Coming from the one who didn't seem to care for my cooking skills, I'm impressed you have the guts to ask me such a question." She took a sip of water to clear her mouth.

"Aww come on, we told you we were playing! Isn't that right, Yuzuru?"

"Affirmation. It was simply a joke, no need to be upset."

"Even if that's the case, the Fraxinus isn't a convenient taxi. You're trying to fit into being a human, so having a ship transport you where you need to go defeats the purpose of that," Kotori glanced over at the clock a smiled. "And by the looks of it you have about five minutes to get there. So maybe you should start running?" Feeling defeated the twins hung their heads down before proceeding to place their dishes in the sink.

"Let's go…" Kaguya solemnly spoke as the two made their way outside with their belongings in hand. As the door shut a loud booming sound could be heard as they kicked off the ground sprinting at full speed.

"What am I going to do with all of them…?" Kotori sighed.

At the gate of the school, a purple haired girl stood waiting and looking out into the distance.

"Shido, hurry or we'll be late!" She waved at the man about a hundred feet away who was clinging on to dear life while trying to catch his breath.

"G-Give.. me a sec…" Feeling a second wind coming on, he ran as quickly as he could until he caught up with her.

"Geez, Shido. You need to learn to run faster." Tohka turned around and headed into the school's shoe locker room.

"Wouldn't it be nice… to be a spirit sometimes…" Shido mumbled before finally catching his breath and joining her inside.

They both walked up to their respective lockers before they felt the ground shaking slightly below them.

"Muu? An earthquake?" Tohka looked around before she could see a huge dust storm not too far from the school's entrance. "What's that?"

Upon looking closer, Tohka could see two orange haired figures in front of the large dust cloud. The next moment the two were inside the building standing not too far from Shido and Tohka.

"Th-That's the last time… I'll ever be late…" Slightly winded from the early run Kaguya straightened out her back before noticing her friends standing before her.

"Realization. It's been a while." Tohka happily waved at them before she realized something.

"Wait a moment, we beat you here! We beat the storm twins in a race to the school!" Jumping in the air from excitement, Tohka was as lively as ever. Shido smiled from watching Tohka act excitedly as she did.

"Tsch, I guess every apprentice has their days." Kaguya folded her arms across her chest in a playful manner.

"Sadness. I can still feel the wound to my pride carving itself into my head." They made their way over to their own lockers.

"Hm? What's this?" Shido closed his locker after putting his shoes on only to hear Tohka asking for help.

"Well, there's something in my locker. What is it?" She pointed inside of her locker where a white card was placed against her shoes.

"It looks like a note, Tohka. Maybe someone wrote you a letter?" Shido couldn't help but laugh in the back of his mind picturing what would happen if it was a confession.

Tohka gently took the note out of her locker. Gazing upon it she noticed that the card, while not expensive, held a certain amount of elegance to it. It was beautiful to say the least, so much so that she tried her best not to rip it while opening it. Reading the lines on the card before her, her face changed with each line that passed.

"I-Is everything okay, Tohka?" Shido tried to lean in to see what she could have been reading.

"It's from Kurumi." Though a feeling of nervousness began to make its way through his body, he needed to make sure it wasn't anything bad.

"What does it say?" Finishing reading the letter, Tohka handed it to him to let him read t for himself. Grabbing the note and unfolding it he began to read the letter.

' _Good morning, Tohka-san. The last time we spoke, we were in agreement that you and I would be going on a bit of an outing of sorts, to which I hope the plans have not changed. Below is the address and time for which I would like for us to meet for our date. Should you decide to not come I will understand, but make no doubt that I would prefer for you to come. Until then I shall contain myself as agreed. I look forward to getting to know one of my fellow spirits more personally. – Tokisaki Kurumi'_


	10. Chapter 10

Ch 10(?)

Morning passed to evening, and with it the school day seemed to have never existed. At least, not for Shido and Tohka. The whole day they nervously worried about the soon-to-be date between the first spirit Shido ever saved and the one he was never able to. It was hard to tell who was more worried between the two of them.

The final bell rang throughout the school, alerting its students that their day was over and that they could now head home and relax. Before actually standing up, Shido gave a concerned glance to the once jolly girl besides him. The entire day she had held onto the note from the morning tightly in her grasp and would read it from time to time when the teachers weren't looking. He was worried for her safety, but more than anything was worried about what she must have been thinking about the whole situation.

"Still reading the note, Tohka?" He asked somewhat in a somewhat joking manner. The familiar voice visibly spooked her from her deep thoughts as she turned with a timid smile on her face.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine though, Shido!" A nervous laugh accompanied her edgy smile. With a deep breath and a quiet exhale, she lowered her head back to the note.

"I've just never had to do anything like this. I've only ever gone on dates with you, but that's because I actually like you… I mean it's not like I dislike her! I've just never been on good enough terms with her to get to know her." Her eyes read back over the note. Shido took a small breath himself.

"Tohka, you don't have to-"

"It's not that!" An involuntary yell escaped from her mouth. She knew what he was going to tell her but she didn't want to hear it.

"It's not that… You were there for all of the other spirits, Shido. Yoshino, Kotori, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, and myself. You even went so far as to try and save Kurumi after she was ready to kill you, much like myself in the past. I just want to be the one to help you out for once… I hate when I see you out there putting yourself in danger without any of us knowing, trying to protect and save everyone you can. You do all that without having anyone to save or be there for _you_ if something were to happen." As she finished, she felt something warm being placed on her head. Casting her gaze up, she was met with Shido's smile as he rubbed her head ever so gently.

"Thank you, Tohka." Seeing the man she cared for praising her gave her a newfound confidence.

"Just remember, you don't need to push yourself so hard, okay? I'll still be the one to protect you if things go bad." While she felt very special in the moment, Tohka furiously shook her head side to side.

"Muuu… Not this time, Shido! This time I will be the one to save you!" Seeing Tohka's face brimming with energy, Shido couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"But your date isn't with me Tohka, it's with Kurumi." Realizing her mistake, Tohka tried to cover it up, but nothing but incomplete thoughts and random sounds left her mouth, causing Shido to laugh to himself again.

"By the way, Shido…" The playful tone faded as she placed the note on her desk before twiddling her thumbs awkwardly.

"How exactly… do I date her?" A small blush came to Shido's cheeks.

"Wh-Wh-What do you mean, Tohka!?"

"Muuu… like how do I go about dating her? On the dates I've had with you we would always go out and eat and at the end of the day we would…" She trailed off just as the both of them thought of their lips meeting at the end of their dates.

"D-Don't worry about doing that last part!" Shido had to burn the image of the seductive spirit passionately kissing the innocent one before him from his mind.

"Just leave that kind of stuff up to Kotori, okay? She would probably know better than either you or I about what to do with Kurumi. Then again, I can't imagine Kotori being too thrilled about her, of all spirits, coming back." He knew that while Kotori would never hold anything against a spirit being a spirit, she most certainly did not enjoy some of their personalities as much as she might another.

"If you say so…Can I ask you something, Shido?" Her eyes were fixated back on the ground.

"As long as I am able to help, I'll try." He laughed to himself.

"What do you think of Kurumi?"

"Wh-What?"

"Muuu… You're the only one who's ever really gotten to know her, right? I've only ever really seen her bad side, so I was wondering if you could tell me more about what she was like when she was with you."

Thinking back to the only other time Kurumi was not teasing Shido or trying to kill him in front of Tohka, was when she had first introduced herself to the class. Even with that aside, no one ever really spoke well about her. Obviously she had killed and done wrong, but even Tohka herself had said it. She wouldn't have been any different if she hadn't met Shido.

"How should I put this…" He visibly thought carefully about how he was going to word his next statement.

"She isn't necessarily a bad person." The awkward laugh followed by the scratching of his cheek was not giving Tohka the best feeling though. Seeing the disappointed look on her face quickly gave him a reason to change his answer.

"I can't deny that Kurumi has done some pretty terrible things in the past to everyone, but at the same time I can't help but want to protect her and say that she doesn't deserve to be blamed the way she has. She's a spirit, just like you and everyone else, so I just want to believe that at some point she was misguided. You've seen it for yourself, haven't you, Tohka? As much as I hate to admit it, she could have easily killed me after Miku had taken all you from me and Ellen had captured you. Yet, rather than kill me, she listened to my pleas to save you and helped me instead. There is still good within her, and it's because of that, that I feel she can be saved."

As if hearing the exact words that she wanted to hear, Tohka felt a light smile grace her lips. It felt as if a great weight was lifted from her shoulders. If the man she loved believed that this girl deserves a second chance, then there was nothing for Tohka to argue with. She had to make this become a reality.

"You really are too kind, Shido." A whisper left her mouth.

"Hm?"

"Nothing!" She said cheerily again. Swiftly standing up, she grabbed her bag and headed towards the door.

"O-Oi, Tohka! Where are you heading?"

"Home, of course! If I'm going to go on a date with Kurumi, then I have to make sure I'm going to do it right!" The classroom door flew open as Tohka began to sprint down the halls. Back in the classroom, Shido could only shake his head with a weary smile on his face.

"You do want to be saved, don't you, Kurumi?"

* * *

Night had come quicker than expected. Alone in her room, the red-headed sister sat at her desk furiously scribbling down notes on a piece of paper while beside her stood large pile of crumbled up papers. A large sigh escaped her mouth as she once again crumbled up another piece of paper and threw it to her side before pulling out a blank one.

"It's no use… I can't think of anything that Kurumi and Tohka have in common." Letting her mind rest for a moment, she began doodling around the paper.

"The only reason they even know each other is because of Shido, and while that would work out for the other spirits, Kurumi probably has other plans in mind for why she would ask Tohka out." Kicking her chair back so that it was only balancing on the back hinges, she gazed up at the ceiling hoping for any sort of inspiration.

For hours, she had been trying to plan a decent course of action for how the date would proceed. At least, good enough so that the rest of the crew could do some fine tweaking in case there were any flaws.

As the front of her chair made contact with the ground again, she picked up her pencil to begin jotting down new ideas when a small knock was heard at the doorway.

"Door's open. Come in, Onii-chan." She didn't care to turn around because of the blank page staring at her face mocking her talents at being an expert on dates. The door slowly opened behind her before coming back to a close.

"So what is it, Onii-chan? I'm kinda in the middle of something." She bit her thumb as scattered thoughts began making their way onto the page before her. However, no one responded to her.

"Hey," She spun her chair around to look behind her, "I asked you a question. The least you could do is-" before she could finish her sentence, her eyes were caught on something out of place in her room. Beside the doorway stood not the blue haired brother that lived with her, but a figure slightly taller than herself in an elegant dress of crimson and black.

"Ara ara~ so straight to the point?" As a smirk appeared on her face, Kotori's blood ran cold.

"K-Kurumi…?" Her voice was almost a whimper.

"Greetings again, Efreet." Her usual small bow taking place after her introductions.

"How are you…" Kotori couldn't believe her eyes. In front of her, in her very own home, stood what was possibly one of the greatest threats to the safety of everyone she knew. This couldn't have been real, right? She must have fallen asleep at the desk and this was all just one insane dream, right?

"Why are you here, Kurumi!?" The small flare in the eyes of the fire spirit did little to intimidate the spirit.

"Why, I am here to speak with you, of course." The unexpected words should have come as a surprise, but somehow didn't shock Kotori as much as it probably should have. Was she getting used to random things happening?

"There should be no reason for you to have come here! If you're looking for a fight you should have just challenged me back on the-" Kurumi held a hand up to stop the little sister from continuing.

"You must have a hard time with Shido-san if your hearing is so bad," Kurumi teased. "I said I had come here to talk with you." Letting out a breath that she didn't even realize that she was holding, she slouched against the table a bit.

"I can only imagine the reason you would break into the home of your enemy after everything that's already happened between us." Kotori inhaled deeply shortly before the newly warmed air exited her body. "So, what do you want?" An unintentional glare was shot in the direction of the crazed spirit.

"I came here to make a request." The spirit said blatantly, her smile never changing from her face.

"You broke into my home in the middle of the night to make a request with the enemy you tried to kill?" To what length was this spirit willing to go to get what she wanted? Kotori was honestly terrified by this thought, but tried not to let her face show it.

"Whether my request is fulfilled or not will depend on what actions I may need to take in the future." The statement left an unsettling air behind it, yet Kotori tried her best to remain unfazed.

"I know that the spirits Shido-san has harbored also have a great deal of respect for you. I also know that being his little sister, who also happens to be quite the dangerous spirit," Kotori's eye twitched in response, which only caused Kurumi to chuckle to herself for a brief moment, "you must have some kind of influence in what happens to these spirits, no?"

With mild curiosity taking over Kotori, she decided to go along with it while not giving out too much info to her enemy.

"You could say that. I interact with them quite often so they have learned to trust me just as much as they do Shido."

"Well then, since I know that you're the one who plans out these dates, I would like to ask of you to mind your own business on my date." Kurumi's tone had dropped significantly.

"What?" She wasn't as shocked by the request, but what caught her off guard was that Kurumi knew she had a role in the planning of dates with the spirits. Whether it was a large on or a small one it didn't seem like she knew, but the thought alone was worrisome.

"And just how do you know that?"

"Because," Her telltale psychotic smile appearing as paused to place her finger on the outskirts of her pursed lips, "I'm always watching you all."

The fear that ran through Kotori was a poison that no man could cure. Her blood turned to ice in her veins and her heart almost stopped beating. She was always being watched. Kurumi was always near her. She could have been standing right next to her in her sleep. Or even worse, she could have been in the same room as Shido without anyone ever knowing. The ability to enter any building without ever being detected was the last thing any kind of God should have given to someone like her.

"So, you want me to leave Tohka in your care for a whole day without having the slightest clue as to what you could be doing to her?" Not a very appealing proposal. Kurumi shrugged in response.

"Would it make you feel any better if I were to give my word that I would not harm her?" Kotori felt like she was being played with, a feeling she very much hated.

"NO, ACTUALLY!" Kotori quickly covered her mouth before she would awake her brother.

"You know that Shido cares too much for the spirits for me to allow something like that, Kurumi. Even if it endangers us, I can't be the one to put even a single life at risk."

"Ara ara~ Like brother, like sister." A false look of defeat on the face of the nightmare. "However, I didn't come prepared for a yes, so let me make you an offer in return." An insecure look crossed the face of the red haired commander.

"What kind of offer?"

* * *

Tohka and Yoshino sat alone in Tohka's room. The princess had invited her longtime friend over to have a bit of company after the events of the past days. Even with her friend in the room, Tohka seemed more focused on her upcoming date than playing with the little rabbit girl.

" **Tohka-chan? Are you even listening to Yoshino?** " The little rabbit puppet on Yoshino's hand called out, causing the distraught girl to snap back into reality?

"Hm? Sorry, were you saying something, Yoshino?"

" **Geez, Tohka-chan. She was telling you all about the wonderful dream she had last night.** " The puppet simply shook its head.

"That's alright, Yoshinon. We both know that Tohka has a lot on her mind." With an innocent smile on her face she looked between Yoshinon and Tohka.

"Sorry, I invited you over but I haven't really done much of anything with you, have I?" A nervous laugh followed.

"It's okay, really! The fact that you wanted me to spend some time with you was more than enough to make me plenty happy." She closed her eyes and hi-fived Yoshinon. Yoshino had been getting much better with trying to speak up, so hearing that someone wanted to spend time with her always made her feeling like she was still walking in the right direction.

"No no, this is totally my fault! How about we watch one of your soap operas?" Tohka bounced off of her bed excitedly.

" **Sorry, Tohka-chan. Little Yoshino here is getting pretty sleepy, so we might have to turn it in for the night before she stops looking so cute from a lack of beauty sleep!** "

"Hey! There's no need to treat me like a kid, Yoshinon!" She pointed with a mocking tone and a small hidden smile at her best friend.

"Muuu… alright. Maybe next time!" Yoshino got up and gave Tohka a small smile and wave before exiting the room.

Tohka, now alone again, looked around her room in hopes of finding something to at least keep her attention. However, most of the fun things that she enjoyed were found in Shido's house.

"It is getting pretty late. Maybe I should start getting ready to sleep as well." She mumbled to herself.

In the back of her mind she knew that with all the drama that had been occurring lately, sleep was the last thing she would get any time soon. But even she knew that trying was better than not in these kinds of situations. She walked over to her drawers and pulled out a comfortable pair of pajamas to sleep in and threw them onto her bed. Taking off her top and bottom garments, she quickly exchanged them for the ones better suited for sleeping.

Finally, before she could fall asleep, she walked over to the light switch, only to hear a knock on her own door.

"Huh, maybe it's Yoshino again?" Strolling on over, the purple haired spirit opened the door.

"Hey, did you forget some-" Rather than her sapphire-eyed friend being at the entrance, she was greeted by a slender woman with gold and red eyes.

"K-Kurumi!?"

"Come with me~" Dark hands came up from underneath Tohka, binding her arms and legs and shielding her mouth from making any noise. She tried to fend off the hands, but to no avail. The last thing Tohka saw was the bright smile of the Nightmare laughing.


	11. Chapter 11

Ch 11(?)

The blissful silence of night enveloped the air of the Itsuka residence, none more so than the exhausted blue haired boy who was happily passed out beneath warm blankets. The last few days had taken a number on his mind. The image of his sister crying next to him, seeing Miku shot and suffering, and knowing that Tohka could be in trouble on her date with Kurumi was all too well toying with his emotions. But for now at least, in his world of dreams, Shido could temporarily escape the harsh reality plaguing his mind.

"NO, ACTUALLY!" The voice rang through the halls before making their way into the ears of the sleeping boy. Almost instantly his eyes shot open and he quickly sat up. What were once dreary blue eyes were now taking in his surroundings on high alert, even if the mind processing them wasn't.

"What was that?" Shido whispered to himself. Being snapped awake so quickly gave his brain little time to actually process anything, but the only thing that he knew for sure was that his ears were slightly ringing.

The only problem with that was the fact that it was the middle of the night and the only people who were in the house right now were Kotori and himself.

"Is Kotori having another nightmare?" Pushing off the blankets, Shido turned his body and practically jumped out of his bed and onto his feet.

Walking as silently as possible, Shido made it to his doorway. Swiftly turning the handle, as to make as little noise as possible, he pulled open the door and peaked his head out into the hallway. While he didn't hear anything else aside from what had woken him up, he did notice that something was slightly out of the ordinary. A faint beam of light was emanating from beneath Kotori's door. A small sigh escaped Shido.

"She's still awake? If she doesn't get some sleep she's going to be exhausted for school in the morning."

Straightening his back a bit, he marched down the hall to where Kotori's room was located. Just as he was about to knock, something else caught his attention. Something from behind the door.

"Why are you going so far to be on a date with Tohka?"

"Ironic coming from the side who claims to 'save' them, is it not?"

Shido could hear two voices whispering back and forth. One of them he could distinctly make out to be Kotori's, but the other one was giving him some trouble.

"Oi, Kotori?" A few knocks followed. "What are you doing up at this hour, is everything okay?" His words were only met by the slight sounds of shuffling.

"Come on Kotori, I know you're awake in there. You should really get some sleep before school." This time his only response was the silence of the night.

He placed his hand on the doorknob and gave it a slight turn before it was met with resistance. Panicking now, Shido began to knock again but slightly harder. It was unusual for Kotori to lock her door unless she was changing. But he was sure she had finished bathing long before he had fallen asleep.

"This isn't funny, Kotori. Come on, open up." His words were immediately responded to this time.

"Geez, you always know the worst time to show up, don't you?" The sound of the door being unlocked was made apparent, for not a moment later did the door crack open and red twintails made themselves visible.

"What do you want?" The younger sister asked in a more agitated manner than Shido had anticipated.

"Ah, well… I thought I heard someone shout something so I got worried and wanted to check on you." He began laughing nervously at how silly it sounded. His stance faltered slightly and an embarrassed blush crossed his face.

"I can assure you that no one was shouting, so just go to bed already." As she was closing the door, Shido placed his hand on it to prevent it from closing completely.

"What are you doing at this hour? You'll have to wake up early for school tomorrow, you know."

"I'm doing homework, now hurry up and get some sleep so I can finish." The response came so quickly it was almost scary. While it was a satisfying and seemingly normal answer, the fact that it was being accompanied by her sudden moodiness and her pushing against him to close the door made him very uneasy.

"Then who's in the room with you?" The question cause the red head's eyes to widen. A visible attempt at further closing the door was very apparent by her sudden increase in strength.

"No one's here, now leave already!" However, Shido knew this wasn't Kotori's normal behavior and continued to push back just as hard.

"Kotori, you shouldn't hide something like this from me." He firmly stared into her eyes.

"I-I'm not…" She began to falter more with each passing second.

"Ara ara~ just let the poor man in, Kotori-san." From behind the door came the other voice again. Now that the voice wasn't whispering her could clearly make it out, and he knew without a shred of doubt who the voice belonged to now.

Casting his gaze back down until he met his sister's eyes, his mouth hung slightly open in disbelief. What worried him even more was the look on his sister's face. She immediately turned her head to face the ground in shame, but he could see that her eyes were filled with the guilt of lying.

"…Fine." Releasing her strength from the door caused Shido to fall forward into the room before quickly having his face make contact with the floor.

"Ow…" He picked up his head in a slight daze.

"Oh my~ on your knees for me already, Shido-san?" The provocative voice made its way close to him. He felt a shoe push him in his sides, causing him to flip over onto his back. As he opened his eyes, he saw the signature red and black dress of the seductress crawling over his body. His chest tightened, but he couldn't tell if it was from fear or something else.

The next thing he knew there was a pair of cool hands cupping his cheeks, ever so slightly bringing his face that much closer to hers.

"How awfully sweet of you to drop by," Her warm breath tickled his ear enticing shivers to run throughout his body. "But you should know that it is very impolite to eavesdrop on two girls at night~"

"Enough!" An unexpected shout came from the other side of the room. Even with the small lash out, the smug spirit seemed to make no attempts from leaving her new throne.

"Oh~? But I like my seat." She teased. Kotori, however, was not feeling up to dealing with her rotten personality at this hour.

"Get yourself off of Shido!" She took a step forward trying to forcibly get her to back off.

"Ara ara~ you leave Shido-san in the dark as you speak with your enemies, and yet you feel that you can tell me to not speak with him as I see fit?" A cat-like grin spread across the nightmare's face while a severe look of distaste spread across the little sister's.

"You know it's not like-"

"If I am wrong, then maybe you can explain to Shido-san why you agreed to talk with me then?" Mildly curious about the situation, Shido couldn't help but perk up slightly to hear her side of things.

"Well, I was just…"

"Or maybe you'd care to explain to Shido-san why you haven't been helping Tohka-san with her recent stress?" The largest grin spread across Kurumi's face when she saw Kotori's eyes widen in horror as her brother looked at her with a panic-ridden face.

"Wait, Tohka's stressed out, Kotori?" It was clearly visible that Kotori's mind was rushing to come up with something to tell her beloved brother, but looking at his heartbroken eyes left the little sister unable to even render a response.

It was hard to tell because of the lighting, but her face had turned slightly pale. All of the little things she kept from Shido recently to make his life a little easier were slowly being leaked and used against her. Catching on to the density of the air, Kurumi ever so gently pushed herself off of Shido's chest and stood back up.

"Maybe I teased you too harshly. I did, after all, come here to try and negotiate, but I really do detest being told what to do by a child, you know." She began making her way to the door. Her face was no longer the smiling tease it was earlier, but seemed to have been replaced by a flat expression. And yet, her elegant air never seemed to fade.

"I suppose I have overstayed my welcome. However, Kotori-san, may I ask what you would like to do about our compromise?" Shido jumped to his feet after the weight of another person was taken off of him.

"A compromise?" Shido turned to Kotori yet again hoping for an answer.

"Get out of my home, Kurumi." Her voice was only but a whimper, yet it contained to intent to kill behind it.

"If that is your response, then so be it." A small sigh as she opened the door was heard by Shido.

"Wait, Kurumi! What are you talking-"

"If you wish to know, ask your lovely sister. I do not feel that it is my place to say what she may or may not have wanted to do at this point. After all, it's the least I could do. I never expected her to personally thank me for assisting with the mess of that diva not too long ago." With that she exited the doorway. Shido could feel his arm wanting to extend, to tell her not to leave again, but this wasn't the time to try to save her and he knew it. With no one left in the house but its original residents, Shido turned again back to Kotori.

"I really hate that woman, you know." A nervous laugh escaped the little sister's now shaking body.

"Kotori…" Shido walked over to his sister and gave her a heartfelt hug. The warmth of her brother seemed to cause Kotori to relax a little.

"I'm here for you, okay? If something's bothering you, please don't keep it from me next time, alright? Just tell me so I can be the one to help you. You do enough for everyone." While she wasn't crying, Kotori felt like she was going to soon from her brother's sweet words.

"Thanks. I think I need some sleep for now, but I'll tell you about some things tomorrow, okay? I promise." With a small smile she walked over to her desk lamp. She looked at the papers crumpled up and thrown everywhere. She still had no idea what to do with the date. Would she leave it up to Kurumi, or would she risk getting on her bad side and making her own plans? Whatever she wanted to do, she knew she wouldn't be able to think of anything now.

"Goodnight, Onii-chan." Even though it seemed that Kotori wasn't in the mentality to sleep right now, he knew that staying here wouldn't help right now either.

"Goodnight, Kotori." He opened the door. "I love you." With the door slowly closing he thought he saw a small smile grace his precious sister's lips.

"I love you too." She whispered.

Now staring at the dark hallway, Shido's mind had no idea what to make of what just happened. So much had happened so quickly that he almost was hoping that he was dreaming, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that everything was all too real. As he walked back to his room, he stopped next to the stairway.

"I think I need some fresh air…" Taking the stairs down, he reached the main door to his house before quickly exiting.

The night air felt amazing against his face. The cool air helped his body heat to cool down a little, not to mention the fresh air allowed him to wake up a little more. Walking over to the rail across from his house, he leaned over it and gazed at the night sky.

"I wonder what will happen when all of this is settled…" After briefly closing his eyes and taking in a few more breaths, he turned back around to go to bed and hopefully relieve some of the new stress on his mind, but something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. A small light was lit in one of the rooms in the apartment complex next to him. Taking a closer look, he noted that it was Tohka's room, to be exact.

"She's still awake, huh?" His mind rushed through the conversation from but a few minutes ago. "Well, if she's stressed out maybe spending some time with her will help." Changing course from his home to the neighboring tower, Shido prepped himself for some things to talk about until he was standing before the door of Tohka's room. As he reached out to knock, he felt something, or rather the lack of something, which he wasn't expecting. Snapping back to reality from his thoughts, he noticed that the door was wide open.

"Tohka? Are you in here?" He cautiously entered the girl's room, but after looking around for a few seconds, he could tell that no one was here whatsoever. Taking a few more steps around the apartment, he heard a crinkling sound following one of his steps. Looking down, he noticed that there was a fairly elegant note laying on the floor. Curiously picking up the note, he opened it and began reading.

'Borrowing this for a little while, hope you don't mind~' A surge of anxiety tore through his veins. Crinkling up the note, he ran back to his house.

"Damn it, Kurumi!"


End file.
